Who was Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco?
Born in Fortaleza, in Ceará, Castelo Branco made his career in the army. He fought in Italy in World War II with the Brazilian force sent there, and later took charge of the Fourth Army in the Northeast. By 1963 he was chief of the army staff and a key organizer of the officers opposed to President João Goulart. When the coup came at the end of March 1964, Congress named him president. He said civilian rule would soon return, yet he governed by decree. His institutional acts removed hundreds of politicians and officials, dissolved the parties and ended direct votes for president. He left office in March 1967 and died that July in a plane crash.
Political views
- His first decree, the First Institutional Act, cancelled mandates and suspended political rights. It opened with a list of 102 people, among them Goulart and Jânio Quadros.Source: www18.fgv.br
- In 1965 a second decree dissolved every political party and made the vote for president indirect.Source: planalto.gov.br
- A 1967 security law spelled out what counted as a crime against the state and the social order.Source: planalto.gov.br
- He approved the 1964 bank reform that created the Central Bank, one part of a stabilization plan built on tighter budgets and restraint on wages.Source: planalto.gov.br
- His government passed the 1964 Land Statute, which laid down legal rules for agrarian reform and farm policy.Source: planalto.gov.br
- In May 1964 he cut ties with Cuba and tied Brazil closely to Washington. In 1965 Brazilian soldiers joined the force sent to the Dominican Republic.Source: www18.fgv.br
- He oversaw the 1967 Constitution, which shifted power toward the federal executive.Source: planalto.gov.br
Legacy
Many call Castelo Branco the mildest of the military presidents, an officer who respected legal forms and treated army rule as a short stage. Admirers say his government cut inflation and left lasting bodies such as the Central Bank, the FGTS fund and a national housing system. Critics reply that he wrecked the democratic order of 1946. Elected officials were purged, parties were abolished, votes for president and governors became indirect and his own term was stretched. Newspapers reported torture of political prisoners as early as September 1964. A 2014 national commission counted 434 deaths and disappearances at the hands of the state from 1946 to 1988, mostly under the regime he started.