João Goulart

João Goulart

João Belchior Marques Goulart (born March 1, 1918 in São Borja , Rio Grande do Sul , † December 6, 1976 in Mercedes , Argentina ) was President of Brazil from 1961 to 1964 . He is also known by his nickname Jango .

Life

Goulart was born the eldest of eight children to a wealthy landowner. He studied law at the University of Porto Alegre . In 1945 he joined the Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro and was promoted in politics by Getúlio Vargas . As early as 1946 he was a member of the Congress of Rio Grande do Sul , in 1950 he sat in the federal congress and was involved in the election campaign for Getúlio Vargas.

Between 1953 and 1954 Goulart was Minister for Labor, Industry and Trade. In this role he doubled the minimum wage, which led to protests from the business community and his dismissal.

In 1955, Goulart was elected Vice President under Juscelino Kubitschek . After the following election in 1960, Goulart was again Vice President, this time under Jânio Quadros . After his resignation, the presidency fell constitutionally to Goulart, who was currently on a diplomatic mission in China. However, it was only sworn in after the resistance of the military after the federal congress drastically curtailed the rights of the president. Goulart then took office on September 8, 1961.

Four months later, Goulart let the people vote on the power of the president and thus regained his ability to act.

Goulart's tenure was marked by galloping inflation and polarization between the left and right camps. If he had inherited an economy crippled by inflation and social tensions, the social turmoil continued to intensify as a result of his redistribution plans. One of Goulart's plans was the Plano Nacional de Adultos , which aimed to teach two million adults to read and write as well as some political education. He also gave illiterate people the right to vote.

Especially when plans for land reform became concrete in northeastern Pernambuco - here the charismatic peasant leader Francisco Julia and the state governor Miguel Arraes put pressure on them - the conservative forces saw the specter of communism . On March 31, 1964, Goulart was ousted by a military coup that was supported by the United States . Troops from Minas Gerais marched towards Rio de Janeiro to ensure the success of the coup.

The military installed General Humberto Castelo Branco as Goulart's successor. Goulart fled to Uruguay , later to Argentina , where he officially died of a heart attack in 1976. However, there are also circumstantial suspicions that he was poisoned and a victim of Operation Condor .

Honors

• 1960: Grand Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany

literature

• Biografias: João Goulart from: Dicionário Histórico Biográfico Brasileiro pós 1930 , FGV, Rio de Janeiro, 2nd edition 2001, on the website of the Institute for Research and Documentation of Contemporary History of Brazil (CPDOC) of the Social Science Institute of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV ) (Portuguese)

Web links

Commons : João Goulart  - collection of images, videos and audio files

João Belchior Marques Goulart on the website of the Presidential Library of the Brazilian Government (Portuguese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter B. Schumann: "Frenzy against Communism". In: DeutschlandfunkKultur.de. March 27, 2014, accessed November 11, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Peter B. Schumann: Parade ground for dictators - On the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Brazil. (mp3, pdf, txt) Deutschlandfunk, March 7, 2014, accessed on March 2, 2014 . 
3. ^ Spiegel Online: Theory of poisoning: Brazil's ex-President Goulart is exhumed . May 3, 2013.

predecessor	Office	successor
Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli	President of Brazil 1961–1964	Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli