Castelo Branco

Castelo Branco (full name: Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco) was the first president of Brazil’s military dictatorship, a leader of the 1964 military coup against the democratically elected João Goulart (1961-1964), and a career military officer.

Branco was born into a military family in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. He attended the Escola Militar de Realengo beginning in 1918. Over the course of the 1920s, he continued his military education and rise through the ranks. Like other junior military officers of his generation, he participated in the “Revolution of 1930” in which Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945, 1950-1954) staged a coup against the oligarchic Old Republic (1889-1930). In the 1930s and 1940s, Branco furthered his military education in Brazil at the Escola de Comando e Estado-Maior do Exército as well as in France and in the United States. 

In 1943, with the rank of Lieutenant-Coronel, Branco led the 3rd Section of the Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB), the Brazilian expeditionary force of approximately 20,000 men sent to fight on the side of the Allies in the Italian theater of WWII. In Italy, Branco participated in the major battles fought by the FEB, including at the pitched Battle of Monte Castello. Prior to returning to Brazil in 1945, Branco achieved the rank of coronel in recognition of his important role in the FEB’s operations. 

Upon his return, Branco became the director of instruction at the Escola de Comando e Estado Maior do Exército (ECEME). Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he focused on reforming the Brazilian army and developing its strategic doctrine, especially in the area of combating supposed internal “subversion.” In 1955, in contrast to his actions in the 1964 coup, he opposed an attempt within the military to prevent the democratically elected Juscelino Kubtischek (1955-1960) from assuming power. From the 1950s to the 1960s, Branco continued rising through the military ranks. Between 1954 and 1956, with the rank of general, he was the commander of the Escola de Comando e Estado-Maior do Exército. From command of the IV Army, he became the Chief of the Estado-Maior do Exército, the body in charge of the military’s domestic policy. He would hold this post from 1963 to the military coup of 1964. 

Shortly after the military overthrew João Goulart on April 1, 1964, Goulart was elected president by Congress. As president, he issued a series of extra-constitutional “Institutional Acts” (Atos Institucionais) that allowed him to bypass the democratic constitution of 1946, then technically still in force. The first Institutional Act established the power of the military to bypass the condition. AI-2 instituted indirect election of the president and dissolved all existing political powers. In its place, the act instituted a two party system consisting of a government party (ARENA, Aliança Renovadora Nacional) and a nominal opposition (MBD, Movimento Democrático Brasileiro). In 1966, AI-3 mandated that governors be indirectly elected by an electoral college controlled by the military and its civilian allies while mayors of capital cities would be selected by those governors. The final Institutional Act of Castelo Branco’s presidency, AI-4, called on congress to replace the democratic Constitution of 1946 with a new constitution in 1967 that would remain in force until replaced by the Constitution of 1988 three years after the end of the dictatorship in 1985. In 1967, Branco was succeeded by his hardline Minister of War, Artur da Costa e Silva, whose actions would intensify the repression and authoritarianism of the regime imposed by the 1964 coup. Shortly after leaving power, Branco died in an airplane accident.