April 15, 1964
Álvaro Camara de Pádua
Eleven days after the coup began, the indirect election process for the new President of the Republic took place in the plenary of the National Congress. The election had already been provided for in Institutional Act No. 1 (AI-1), announced to the population on April 9th. A few days before the electoral process, the Army was on the verge of a rupture: the dispute was between the newly appointed Army Commander, General Arthur da Costa e Silva, and the Force's Chief of Staff, General Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco. Both wanted to occupy the presidential seat.
Despite this, Castello Branco, because of his “military prestige and the legalist veneer that reassured everyone who wanted a general merely keeping the seat warm”, as Elio Gaspari states, was the one chosen by the Electoral College to provisionally take over the country's government. On April 15th, in the presence of military officers and members of civil society who jostled for space in the galleries of the Chamber of Deputies' plenary chamber, the former Army Chief of Staff swore to “defend and fulfill, with honor and loyalty, the Constitution of Brazil".
Among the points raised in his speech, the General stated that his conduct would be “that of a head of State without equivocation, in the process for the election of a Brazilian to whom I will hand over the office on January 31, 1966.” On April 15, 1964, the process begun on March 31 came to an end. The movement that set out from Juiz de Fora and advanced forcefully through Rio de Janeiro found its conclusion in the new federal capital, Brasília.
Image description: This is a color photograph of a public event. On the left side, we see a man in a black suit receiving a green and yellow sash from another man to his right, also wearing a black suit. Both are in an indoor setting, with several people in the background, some with their backs turned and others facing forward. The sash has gold and red details.Ranieri Mazzili passa a faixa presidencial para Castello Branco
. Revista O Cruzeiro, 9 de maio de 1964. Foto: Jean Solari, Geraldo Viola, Roberto Stuckert e José Belém. Acervo - Biblioteca Nacional