Bolsonaro orders military barracks to commemorate the anniversary of the military dictatorship.
President Jair Bolsonaro intends to noisily celebrate the anniversary of the March 31, 1964 military coup that overthrew President João Goulart and established a military dictatorship for 21 years. The military regime eliminated democratic freedoms, removed parliamentarians from office, persecuted intellectuals, artists, scientists, political and social activists, and imprisoned, banished, tortured, and murdered political opponents.
247 - President Jair Bolsonaro is planning to noisily celebrate the anniversary of the military coup of March 31, 1964, which overthrew President João Goulart and established a military dictatorship for 21 years. The military regime eliminated democratic freedoms, removed parliamentarians from office, persecuted intellectuals, artists, scientists, political and social activists, and imprisoned, banished, tortured, and murdered political opponents.
According to the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo, Bolsonaro "instructed the military barracks to commemorate the 'historic date' of the anniversary of March 31, 1964."
However, according to the newspaper, "Retired generals who are part of the top tier of the Executive branch are urging caution in their tone to avoid unnecessary noise given the heated political climate and the risks of controversy amidst the debates on pension reform."
The first commemoration of the anniversary of the 1964 military coup could cause controversy and put the military in the crosshairs of criticism, due to Bolsonaro's stance, who has already declared that he idolizes one of the symbols of the military regime, Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, a torturer of political prisoners who died in 2015. Ustra was the commander of the DOI-Codi of the II Army, in São Paulo, where torture and murder of political prisoners were practiced.