TroopsoftheSecondArmycommandedbyGeneralAmauryKruelintheParaíbaValley

April 1, 1964

Álvaro Camara de Pádua

"No, sir. It's you who must put an end to all this 'pelegada' and change your policy," replied General Amaury Kruel to the orders of a Jango already weakened in the face of the popular mobilizations of the March of the Family with God for Freedom. In the week of March 19th, the president summoned Kruel to a meeting in Rio de Janeiro in order to discuss the implications of the March in São Paulo.

The general, who commanded the II Army – troops from São Paulo and Mato Grosso –, was a personal friend of João Goulart and godfather to João Vicente, his son. However, the friendship was not enough to prevent the commander from conspiring for the coup. In Kruel's own words: “I did not join the Revolution. I made the Revolution. It's quite different”.

As dusk fell on March 31, amid the movement of General Olympio Mourão Filho's troops from Minas Gerais toward Rio de Janeiro, Jango called Kruel. From São Paulo, the commander of the II Army said he had advised the president to abandon the unionists. João Goulart objected, saying he could not drop his friends. The general's reply was laconic: "Well, if you cannot drop your friends, from this moment on we are separated."

At the São Paulo General Headquarters, the day had been marked by a climate of apprehension involving the commander of the II Army and some of his subordinates – such as general Aloísio, chief of the II Army Division, who went so far as to say he would arrest the commander given the signs of support for the uprising that had begun in Juiz de Fora. It was then, at 10:50 p.m., after a meeting with his subordinates, that Kruel ordered the deployment of the II Army's troops, officially breaking with the government.

On the following day, the São Paulo troops were already marching toward Rio de Janeiro when, at 2 p.m., General Moraes Âncora, commander of the First Army, negotiated a meeting with Kruel at the Agulhas Negras Military Academy (AMAN), headquartered in the municipality of Resende and, at the time, commanded by General Emílio Garrastazu Médici. At that moment, the troops of the First Army, who still remained loyal to President Goulart and had been sent to contain the movements in the Paraíba Valley region, joined the military coup. It was then that Kruel declared: "The revolution has been won."

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a military formation. On the left side, we see military vehicles being transported by trains. In front of the vehicles, soldiers are seated on a truck. In the center, the trains are loaded with armored vehicles. On the right, civilian onlookers are standing beside the railroad tracks. In the background, there is a dense forest.