João Goulart

Infobox_President
name=João Goulart
nationality=Brazilian


term_start=September 7, 1961
term_end=April 1, 1964
vicepresident=None
predecessor=Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli
successor=Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli
order2=16th Vice-President of Brazil
term_start2= January 31, 1956
term_end2= September 7, 1961
president2=Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira
Jânio Quadros
predecessor2=João Café Filho (1954)
successor2=José Maria Alckmin (1964)
birth_date=birth date|1919|3|1|mf=y The year when Goulart was born is uncertain. Some say that it is 1918 while others argue that it is 1919. According to "Almanaque Abril 2000", [http://www.al.rs.gov.br/biblioteca/pdf/joao_goulart.pdf Parlamentares Gaúchos] , and many other sources , the father of Goulart decreased in one year the birthdate of his son so that he could enter the university to srudy law. See pt icon [http://www.constelar.com.br/revista/edicao37/jango1.htm Constelar] for more information.]
birth_place=São Borja, Rio Grande do Sul
death_date=death date and age|1976|12|6|1918|3|1|mf=y
death_place=Mercedes, Argentina
spouse=Maria Teresa Fontela Goulart
party=Brazilian Labour Party - PTB
order=27th President of Brazil
vicepresident=

João Belchior Marques Goulart (March 1, 1919 — December 6, 1976) was a Brazilian politician and the 27th president of Brazil until a military coup d'etat deposed him on March 31, 1964.

A former "estancieiro" (farmer with huge properties of land), Goulart (nicknamed "Jango") studied law in Porto Alegre. He was elected to the Rio Grande do Sul state legislature in 1946 with the Brazilian Labor Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, PTB). He later served as minister of justice and the interior. In 1953 he was appointed by President Getúlio Vargas as minister of labour, industry, and commerce. Despite being rich, Goulart was very popular among lower classes and made connections with labour unions. Vargas took advantage of that just when the left wing sectors were deviating from his government. As minister of labour, Goulart proposed an increase of 100% in minimum wages.

In 1956, Jango was elected Vice President, as the running mate of President Juscelino Kubitschek. Goulart was again elected Vice President in 1960. This time, however, the president was Jânio Quadros, a member of a different party. (At the time, Brazilians could vote for a ticket that had candidates for president and vice president from different parties.)Quadros resigned in 1961. According to some chroniclers, this was an attempt to promote a self-coup. After this alleged coup failed, Goulart assumed the presidency after a ten-day-long crisis.

The surname Goulart is probably from the Azorean-Flemish surname Govaert [ pt icon [http://www.al.rs.gov.br/biblioteca/pdf/joao_goulart.pdf Parlamentares Gaúchos] .]

The Goulart administration

Congress was reluctant to give Goulart the mandate because of military opposition to his apparent left-wing tendencies, though he was the political heir of Getúlio Vargas (a right-wing president). As a compromise solution, Brazil adopted a parliamentary system of government. After two years of unstable governments, parliamentarism was overwhelmingly rejected in a plebiscite in 1963 and Goulart regained his lost authority.

The Goulart years were marked by national reforms, closer ties to left-of-center political groups, and conflict with more conservative sectors of society. He signed decrees expropriating oil refineries and uncultivated land owned by foreign companies. State-run workers programs, in an attempt to work this unused land, were considered too radical.

The military overthrow of Goulart

In 1964, a military-led coup overthrew Goulart. The coup installed successive right-wing hardliners as heads of state who suspended civil rights and liberties of the Brazilian people [cite book |last=Gaspari |first=Elio |authorlink=Elio Gaspari |title=A Ditadura Envergonhada |year=2002 |publisher=Cia. das Letras |location=São Paulo |isbn=8535902775] . They abolished all political parties and replaced them with only two, the military government's party called the "National Renewal Alliance Party" (ARENA) and the opposition's "Brazilian Democratic Movement" (MDB). However, the MDB had no real power, and that the military rule was marked by the widespread disappearance, torture, and exile of many politicians, university students, writers, singers, painters, filmmakers and other artists.

In the first of hours of March 31, 1964, General Olímpio Mourão Filho, in charge of the 4th Military Region, headquartered in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, ordered his troops to start moving towards Rio de Janeiro, to depose Goulart. [ [http://www.cpdoc.fgv.br/nav_jgoulart/htm/biografias/Olimpio_Mourao_Filho.asp Olímpio Mourão Filho] Fundação Getúlio Vargas: Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil. Retrieved on August 20, 2007.]

On April 1, at 12:45PM, João Goulart left Rio for the capital, Brasília, in an attempt to stop the coup politically. [cite book |last=Gaspari |first=Elio |authorlink=Elio Gaspari |title=A Ditadura Envergonhada |year=2002 |publisher=Cia. das Letras |location=São Paulo |isbn=8535902775 |pages=pp. 103]

When he reached Brasília, Goulart realized he lacked any political support. The Senate president, Auro Moura Andrade, was already articulating for congressional support of the coup. Goulart stayed for a short time in Brasília, gathering his wife and two children, and flying to Porto Alegre in an Air Force Avro 748 aircraft. Soon after Goulart's plane took off, Auro Moura Andrade declared the position of President of Brazil "vacant". [cite book |last=Gaspari |first=Elio |authorlink=Elio Gaspari |title=A Ditadura Envergonhada |year=2002 |publisher=Cia. das Letras |location=São Paulo |isbn=8535902775 |pages=pp. 111]

In the first hours of April 2, Auro Moura de Andrade, along with the president of the Supreme Federal Court swore in Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli, the speaker of the house, as president. This move was arguably unconstitutional at the time, as João Goulart was still in the country. [cite book |last=Gaspari |first=Elio |authorlink=Elio Gaspari |title=A Ditadura Envergonhada |year=2002 |publisher=Cia. das Letras |location=São Paulo |isbn=8535902775 |pages=pp. 112]

At the same time, Goulart, now in the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Porto Alegre, (still loyal to him at the time) contemplated resistance and counter-moves with Leonel Brizola, who argued for armed resistance. In the morning, General Floriano Machado informed the president that troops loyal to the coup were moving from Curitiba to Porto Alegre, and that he had to leave the country, risking arrest otherwise. At 11:45AM, Jango boarded a Douglas C-47 transport for his farm bordering Uruguay. Goulart would stay in his farms lands, until April 4, when he finally boarded the plane for the last time, heading for Montevideo. [cite book |last=Gaspari |first=Elio |authorlink=Elio Gaspari |title=A Ditadura Envergonhada |year=2002 |publisher=Cia. das Letras |location=São Paulo |isbn=8535902775 |pages=pp. 113]

Death

João Goulart died in Mercedes, Argentina in 1976 of a heart attack. On April 26, 2000, former governor of Rio de Janeiro, Leonel Brizola, alleged that the ex-presidents of Brazil, João Goulart and Juscelino Kubitschek, were assassinated in the frame of Operation Condor and requested the opening of investigations on their death. They died respectively of a heart attack and a car accident. [ [http://www1.elmostrador.cl/modulos/noticias/constructor/noticia_impresion.asp?id_noticia=3317 "Brasil examina su pasado represivo en la Operación Cóndor"] , "El Mostrador", 11 May 2000 ] [ [http://www.clarin.com/diario/2000/05/06/i-03702.htm "Operación Cóndor: presión de Brizola sobre la Argentina"] , "El Clarín", 6 May 2000]

References

ee also

* 1964 Brazilian coup d'état
* History of Brazil (1964–1985)

External links

* [http://www.archontology.org/nations/braz/braz_rep2/goulart.php Archontology: João Belchior Marques Goulart]
* [http://www.brazilnow.info/books01.php?ID_Books_Title=27 Jango: Um perfil (1945-1964)] English review of his biography in Portuguese by Marco Antonio Villa.
* [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB118/index.htm National Security Archive] Article about the declassification of secret documents.
* [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=brazil Cooperative research]
* [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Brazil_KH.html Third world traveler]

Persondata
NAME= Goulart, João
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=politician
DATE OF BIRTH=March 1, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH=São Borja, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
DATE OF DEATH=December 6, 1976
PLACE OF DEATH=Mercedes, Argentina