Goulart, Juan

João Goulart was born in 1918 in the family of a landowner ^[4] in the city of São Borja . In 1939 he graduated from the University of Porto Alegre , receiving a doctorate in law and social sciences. He began political activity as a supporter of his fellow countryman - President Getulio Vargas . In 1945, together with the latter, he founded the Brazilian Trabalist (Worker) Party (BTP), which brought together part of the petty and middle bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia and part of the workers in San Borja.

In 1946-1950 he was a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio Grande do Sul . Since 1950, he worked as a deputy from the BTP in the National Congress of Brazil . From July 1953 to February 1954 he served as Minister of Labor, Industry and Trade.

In 1955 - 1961 he was vice-president of Brazil, first under Juscelin Kubitschek , then under Janiu Cuadrus .

In August 1961, a power crisis broke out in Brazil: President Janiu Cuadrus resigned. The power was temporarily received by the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, Ranieri Mazzilli , since Goulart was on an official visit to China at that time. According to the Constitution, Goulart was to become acting president, but he met resistance from the right circles. On September 7, 1961, he returned to Brazil and took the oath of the president, but was forced to compromise.

Gulart did not enjoy support among the military and the financial elite, therefore, before he assumed the presidency, on September 2, 1961, the Congress adopted an amendment to the Constitution, according to which the post of Prime Minister of Brazil was introduced, in favor of which many powers of the president were redistributed. So, Brazil for a while turned into a parliamentary republic , where the president did not have real power.

However, Gulart, who proposed a comprehensive reform program, managed to strengthen his authority in the power structures, and in a referendum in January 1963, 80% of the population voted for strong presidential power. Finally, Goulart received the right to reform. Relying on the left wing of the BTP, led by Lionel Brizola , unions and radical intelligentsia, he began agrarian reform, limited the export of capital abroad and nationalized communication companies, and revised concessions for the development and extraction of natural resources. Also with him, diplomatic relations with the USSR were restored, broken in 1947 ^[5] .

Financial circles, large business in São Paulo, the Catholic Church, influential in Brazil, the United States and their corporations considered that Goulart sympathizes with the Communists, although the Communist Party of Brazil was banned. The most active opponent of Gulart was the governor of the state of Guanabara, Carlos Lacerda . On March 19, 1964, a march was held in São Paulo against the Gulart transformations “For the Family, God and Freedom” ^[3] .

On March 31, an anti-government rebellion began in Minas Gerais . Having received a manifesto demanding resignation from the military, Goulart tried to organize resistance, but did not find the support of the army. Then he fled to Porto Alegre , and then emigrated to Uruguay .

While in Uruguay, Goulart, along with Juscelino Kubitschek and a number of other politicians, including Carlos Lacerda, tried to organize the “Wide Front” movement aimed at restoring democracy in Brazil, but it was not successful ^[3] .

Goulart died on December 6, 1976 in Argentina at the age of 58. There is strong evidence that Goulart was poisoned and killed in the framework of Operation Condor , which the intelligence services of several Latin American states carried out to destroy opposition politicians.

Along with Goulart, another former Brazilian president, Kubitschek , who died in a car accident in 1976, is considered a victim of a conspiracy. The death of Gulart is being investigated at the request of his relatives, in 2013 his remains were exhumed for this ^[6] . Presumably the customer of both murders is a protege of the military junta, then Brazilian president Ernesto Geisel ^{[7] [8]} . The organizer of the Gulart murder is called the commissar of the Brazilian political police DPS Sergio Fleuri ^[9] .