On March 31, the day before the 1964 coup, soldiers from the Navy’s Marine Corps invaded the building of media giant Jornal do Brasil and stopped radio transmission for a full hour. The soldiers alleged that the publication’s newscast had transmitted subversive information by divulging a secret meeting in the Ministry of War, held by General Castelo Branco against the João Goulart government.
“Anyone who went to the Jornal do Brasil building last night at 8:30 P.M. could not have entered, as they would have found a Navy marine at the door, machine gun in hand. And if they had looked through the glass wall into the radio studios, it would have looked like a gangster movie: four other marines under the command of Lieutenant Arinos paced through the studio like gorillas, their agility hindered by their large machine guns which threatened microphones, instrument panels, and employees standing stupefied by the burst of technological savagery on Rio Branco Avenue,” reads the edition of Jornal Brasil from April 1. The article also recounts how the commander of the Navy said on a telephone call to the superintendent of the radio and print publication that the invasion was simply a mistake.
Various events that took place on March 31, 1964 would lead to the coup on April 1 of the same year, the first day of a military dictatorship that lasted 20 years.
Before the military seized power in Brazil, the majority of newspapers expressly supported removing João Goulart – also known as Jango – from the presidency, thus encouraging the coup. The military also found ample support from other parts of Brazilian society, including businessmen, rural landowners, state governors, and some sectors of the conservative Christian middle class who went to the streets in a series of protests called the Marcha da Família com Deus pela Liberdade, or March of the Family with God for Liberty. Those involved justified the 1964 coup by arguing that removing Jango would restore order and inhibit the “communist threat” in Brazil. On April 1, in avoid civil war and find safety, Jango went to Brasília, then to Porto Alegre, and finally exiled himself in Uruguay. On that same day, the military took control of the country and established the dictatorship that would remain until 1985.