TheUNEbuildingissetonfireinFlamengo

April 1, 1964

Danilo Araujo Marques

As March 31st went on, the Coup was becoming more and more concrete in the city of Rio. As soon as news arrived of the military uprising that had started in Juiz de Fora, leaders of the União Nacional dos Estudantes (UNE) and the Centro de Cultura Popular (CPC) called a meeting at the well-known address of their national headquarters: Praia do Flamengo, number 132. Since information was still arriving in a somewhat scattered way, part of the group decided to stay on for a vigil. Outside, tempers among those who supported the Coup were already running quite high. And sure enough, that night a car drove by firing machine-gun bursts at the building that symbolized the student movement's presence in Rio de Janeiro since the 1940s. The message could not have been more explicit.

Air Force Brigadier Major Francisco Teixeira – legalist commander of the III Air Zone – was even called in to keep the site secure. But, in the early hours of the following day, April 1st, the Military Coup was already a fact. With the need to reposition troops across the city, the UNE was left without the Air Force's protection and became an easy target. At 10 a.m., supporters of Carlos Lacerda and paramilitary groups invaded the building, ransacked rooms, and threw furniture, papers, and books out the windows. Molotov cocktails were thrown onto the building's three floors, and in a short time, the flames engulfed the façade. Those still inside the building had to rush out through the back and jump over the wall.

More than physical, the destruction of UNE's headquarters was symbolic. Right on the first day of the Coup, it served to lay bare how every form of political opposition would be treated from then on.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of an event involving wreckage and smoke on a city street. On the left, there are palm trees and people walking with umbrellas. In the center, the wreckage of a vehicle is in flames, with dense smoke. On the right, a destroyed building is visible, its façade damaged. In the background, other tall buildings can be seen.