January 22, 1964
Igor B. Cardoso
"The opposition arms itself against the coup." That's how it
Jornal do Brasil
featured on the January 22 front page the news that armed militias were preparing to act against a possible communist revolution.
Despite the alarmist tone, the information was based, without confirmation, on statements by congressman Olavo Bilac Pinto, president of the National Democratic Union (UDN). It was the same party as governor Carlos Lacerda, a staunch opponent of João Goulart, then president of Brazil for the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB).
Bilac Pinto had stated that, alongside groups of "counter-revolutionary militias," a high-level democratic league was being formed, whose leadership would fall to the jurist Sobral Pinto. Still according to the congressman, this offensive was a response to Goulart, who was allegedly arming the workers' unions, notably those of the waterfront and the peasants, in order to close the National Congress and establish communism in Brazil through a coup d'état.
Estudos realizados na Escola Superior de Guerra e nas Escolas do Estado-Maior, por oficiais superiores das nossas Forças Armadas, chegaram à conclusão de que, no Brasil, a guerra revolucionária está na terceira fase (…). Essa fase é precisamente em que se opera a obtenção de armas
JB
.
On the other side, Minister of Justice Abelardo Jurema declared that Bilac Pinto's denunciation was "serial-novel literature, with no concrete fact and even revealing a poverty of imagination, clinging to hypotheses already entirely dismantled and nullified by time." Congressman Doutel de Andrade, leader of the PTB in the Chamber, stated that "it is Mr. Bilac Pinto's unavoidable duty to prove, with concrete facts and not with empty words, his allegations that the Federal Government is supplying weapons to the unions."
Image description: The image is a black-and-white newspaper page. It is divided into two vertical columns. In the first column, there is a headline reading "Opposition arms itself against coup." Below it, there is text explaining that political groups are preparing civil resistance to the coup. In the second column, there is more text detailing the resistance groups and their activities.“Oposição se arma contra golpe”.
Rio de Janeiro, 22 de janeiro de 1964. Fundo Jornal do Brasil / Fundação Biblioteca Nacional