At the end of the afternoon on Friday, March 13, 1964, more than 150,000 people watched a speech delivered by President João Goulart, commonly known as Jango, at the Cristiano Otoni Square next to the Central do Brazil train station. At the Central do Brasil Rally, as the event was later called, the president announced the federal government’s core reforms. Jango’s idea was that the reforms would transform all of Brazilian society, instating “not only an agrarian reform, but also a tax reform, and a comprehensive electoral reform, which would make all Brazilians, including illiterate people, eligible to vote, for the purity of democratic life,” the president said during the speech. The fear of a communist revolution, which the military saw as being fostered by Jango’s government, triggered the military coup that occurred on April 1, just days after the Rally.
News reports in Sao Paulo indicate that the conservative sectors of the country could not accept the president’s speech. “You, citizens of Sao Paulo, again prayed on the steps of the Cathedral on Praça de Sé, while a loudspeaker – once silenced by DOPS [a military police unit used for censorship and repression] – transmitted the Rio de Janeiro rally at full volume. You, citizens, asked for God’s protection against the communist threat in Brazil, which includes the governor of Bahia’s wife,” says a report from the newspaper Jornal do Brasil. Another article affirms that the Sao Paulo governor Ademar de Barros “sees a plan to agitate Brazil in this rally and has to buy a new pillow in order to sleep through the night. ‘We have confirmed that there is significant organization in the service of communism that aims to subvert order and provoke economic chaos,’ said the governor.”
Two weeks after the event, a Navy revolt aggravated the political situation in Brazil. The Nacy demanded better conditions for the military and support for Goulart’s core reforms. On the March 27, military leadership arrested the organizers of the movement. Jango pardoned the marines in order to resolve the conflict, leaving much of the military unsatisfied. The political tension culminated in the President’s exile and the military coup.