March of the Family with God for Liberty

The March of the Family with God for Liberty (Portuguese: Marcha da Família com Deus pela Liberdade) was a series of public demonstrations in Brazil.[1] The first march was held in São Paulo on March 19, 1964, on St Joseph's Day, Saint Joseph being the patron saint of the family, and attracted an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 attendees.[2][3]

Mobilization

The march was sparked by a speech by then President João Goulart in Rio de Janeiro on March 13 in which he called for thing such as political reforms including rent control; wealth tax; expropriation of land within 10 km of roads, railroads and dams, and the nationalization of oil refineries.[4][5] For years, the mild reforms had been seen by the US government as threatening to its financial interests and hegemony in the region.[6] Goulart had also called for nationalization of foreign mining concerns, such as US-owned Hanna Mining.[7] To discredit Goulart, the US played on exaggerated fears of communism through extensive propaganda supplied via McCarthyist journalists such as Clarence W. Hall and CIA-funded figures such as Father Patrick Peyton, who helped exaggerate the threat of communism.[8] The anticommunist propaganda instilled in Brazilians the specter of an imminent "Red" takeover during the Cold War while the US government's financial and geopolitical motivations for removing Goulart remained hidden.[9] The media-fed fears prompted Catholic women, especially the group Campanha da Mulher pela Democracia (CAMDE Women's Campaign for Democracy), to organize the march at Praça da Sé, in São Paulo, and parallel marches elsewhere. The marchers demanded Goulart's impeachment and expressed strong opposition to his reformist agenda. The march was a precursor to the Brazilian coup d'état and prepared the public to accept a coup against Goulart.[10][11]

The US-backed coup installed a military dictatorship that lasted 21 years and arrested, exiled, brutally tortured, and killed thousands.[12] Despite the substantial investment in anticommunist propaganda, no evidence of such a threat ever emerged.[13] The dictatorship left a humiliating, destructive legacy for the nation, which many Brazilians prefer not to remember.[14] Their amnesia was aided by the 1979 Amnesty Law, which granted immunity to the regime's torturers, as well as by calls from former regime officials to "turn the page."[15]

The amnesia is seen in the occasional parade commemorating the dictatorship, usually by the right-wing military. In 2014, commemorative marches were held in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in support of the 1964 marches, the latter attracting around 150 attendees and around 50 counterdemonstrators.[16]

References
  1. A ditadura militar no Brasil : a história em cima dos fatos. Severiano, Mylton. [Brazil]: Caros Amigos Editora. 2007. ISBN 9788586821837. OCLC 654432961.CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. John W. F. Dulles (1 January 2010). Resisting Brazil's Military Regime: An Account of the Battles of Sobral Pinto. University of Texas Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-292-78220-4.
  3. Ivan Richard; Danillo Macedo (2014). "Anatomy of a coup d'état". Agência Brasil.
  4. "Comício da Central do Brasil selou guinada de Jango à esquerda". Folha de S.Paulo. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  5. Vicentino, Cláudio (2001). História para ensino médio: história geral e do Brasil. São Paulo, Brazil: Scipione. ISBN 85-262-3790-X.
  6. Green, James N. (2010). We Cannot Remain Silent: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States. Durham NC: Duke UP. p. 29-48.
  7. Black, Jan Knippers (1977). United States Penetration of Brazil. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. pp. 86–90.
  8. McGarry, Patsy. "Mayo-born 'Rosary priest' helped CIA bring about 1964 coup in Brazil". Irish Times. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  9. Green, James N. (2010). We Cannot Remain Silent: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States. Durham, NC: Duke UP. pp. 38–40.
  10. José Bacchieri Duarte (2001). A fascinante história de Pedro Simon: sua vida, seu tempo (in Portuguese). Editora AGE Ltda. p. 100. ISBN 978-85-7497-036-3.
  11. Dom Phillips (30 March 2014). "As Brazil marks 50th anniversary of the coup, more people open up about the dictatorship". Washington Post.
  12. Black, Jan Knippers. "The United States and Brazil: On Reaping What You Sow". NACLA. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  13. MacMichael, David (2007). "Brazil: General's Coup" In Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since WWII. Armonk, NJ: M.E. Sharpe. pp. 358–363.
  14. Sader, Emir. "O que o golpe e a ditadura representaram para o Brasil (What the Coup and Dictatorship Meant for Brazil)". Carta Maior. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  15. Nielsen, Rex (2009). Modern Latin America, supplement. Providence, RI: Brown University.
  16. "Demonstrators Clash in Rio and São Paulo: Daily". The Rio Times. 23 March 2014.
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