The 50th anniversary of the Brazilian coup d’état: civic order and illegality at the beginning of the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1965)

Abstract

Marking 50 years since the Brazilian coup d’état of 1964, 2014 was of particular significance to studies analyzing the political period in which the coup took place and its ramifications. Inspired by the disputes over the remembrance of the coup, the aim of this article is to elucidate on the political impacts of General Castello Branco’s government’s coordination of civil and military participation in the commemorations held immediately after the coup and those marking the first anniversary of the so-called ‘Revolution” (1965). In the period after 31 March 1964, the press emphasized civil participation in post-coup commemorations and subsequent public demonstrations in the form of parades and motorcades held across Brazil’s major cities. The predominant discourse also reinforced anticommunism, civic order, and the legal character attributed to a civil-military movement initiated by means of a non-constitutional initiative that came to be historically framed as a ‘revolution”, despite its clear ‘coup d’état” nature. By 1965, the initial euphoria had faded and the population retreated from the streets, with commemorations therefore shifting in tone and coming to focus on the government’s attempt to promote itself in an exhibition of its management of the aftermath.