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Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco

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In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Alencar and the second or paternal family name is Castelo Branco.
His Excellency
Castelo Branco
Official portrait, 1964
26th President of Brazil
In office
15 April 1964 – 15 March 1967
Vice PresidentJosé Maria Alkmin
Preceded byRanieri Mazzilli (acting)
Succeeded byCosta e Silva
Chief of the Army General Staff
In office
13 September 1963 – 14 April 1964
PresidentJoão Goulart
Ranieri Mazzilli (acting)
Preceded byJosé Machado Lopes
Succeeded byDécio Palmeiro Escobar
Personal details
BornBranco (father)
Antonieta de Alencar Gurgel (mother)
(1897-09-20)20 September 1897
Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
Died18 July 1967(1967-07-18) (aged 69)
Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
Cause of deathPlane crash
Resting placeCastelo Branco Mausoleum
Political partyARENA (1966–1967)
Spouse
Argentina Viana
​
​
(m. 1922; died 1963)​
Children2
ParentCândido Borges Castelo
Alma materMilitary School of Realengo
Officers Improvement School
Army General Staff School
Signature
Military service
AllegianceBrazil
Branch/serviceBrazilian Army
Years of service1918–1964
RankField marshal
Commands
List
    • 3rd General Staff Operations Section of the 1st Expeditionary Infantry Division
    • Brazilian Expeditionary Force General Staff
    • 11th Infantry Regiment
    • 3rd Army General Staff Section
    • 10th Military Region
    • School of General Staff
    • Garrison of the Amazon
    • 8th Military Region
Battles/wars

Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco[a] (20 September 1897 – 18 July 1967) was a Brazilian military officer and politician who served as the 26th president of Brazil, the first of the Brazilian military dictatorship following the 1964 coup d'état. He was a member of a more liberal "legalist" faction within the regime,[1] as opposed to his more authoritarian successors.

Family background

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Castelo Branco was born in a wealthy Northeastern Brazilian family having roots in Coura (Paredes de Coura), Portugal. His father, Cândido Borges Castelo Branco, was a general. His mother, Antonieta Alencar Castelo Branco, came from a family of intellectuals (which included the writer José de Alencar).

He was married to Argentina Vianna, and had two children, Nieta and Paulo.[2]

Military career

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Castelo Branco (left) and Amaury Kruel at the Military School of Porto Alegre, c. 1912–1917

Castelo Branco joined the Brazilian Army at Rio Pardo Military School in Rio Grande do Sul. In 1918, he joined the Military School of Realengo in Rio de Janeiro, as an infantry cadet, and was declared second lieutenant in 1921, being assigned to the 12th Infantry Regiment in Belo Horizonte. In 1923 he reached the rank of first lieutenant. In 1924, still as lieutenant, he completed the Infantry Advanced Course and, upon returning to the 12th RI, was assigned the task of commanding a detachment from the unit and integrating the legal forces that would come to grips with and overcome internal revolts hatched in São Paulo in 1925. He then returned to the Military School of Realengo as an infantry instructor in 1927. He participated, like many other lieutenants of his time, in the Brazilian Revolution of 1930.

In 1931, he attended the Command and General Staff College (ECEME), in which he was the first placed of his class. Promoted to Major in 1938, he was enrolled in the French War College and upon returning to Brazil, he served as an instructor at the Military School of Realengo.

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1943 and attended the Command and General Staff College in the United States. Then he was head of the 3rd. Section (Operations) of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) during World War II, in Italy, remaining for three hundred days on the battlefields. He sent sixty letters to his wife, Argentina Viana Castelo Branco, and his two sons. At FEB, he planned and implemented military maneuvers in combat in Italy, especially at the Battle of Monte Castello. According to Marshal Cordeiro de Farias, Castello won exceptional prestige at FEB, for being a great strategist and having a privileged head.

Promoted to Colonel in 1945, Castelo Branco returned to Brazil with the firm intention of transmitting his professional experiences to the officers of the Army. In this way, it assumed the position of Director of Studies of the ECEME, and transformed this school into a true center of doctrinal investigations. Castelo Branco systematized, mainly between 1946 and 1947, the reasoning method for the study of decision factors, recommended by the French Military Mission, with a structure of work within the command, better disciplining the activities of the Commander and his Staff Officers.

In 1955, he helped with the Army's administrative reshaping and supported the military movement headed by the Minister of War, General Henrique Teixeira Lott, who secured the inauguration of President-elect Juscelino Kubitschek, who at that time was threatened with a military coup.

Months later, when trade union organizations resolved to hand over to the Minister a golden sword, Castelo severely broke with General Lott. The press recorded a few moments of this misunderstanding.

As General, he commanded ECEME, between September 15, 1954, and January 3, 1956.[3] During this period, he perfected his Command Work of 1948, seeking to better suit him characteristics of Brazilian Chiefs and Staff Officers. Conferences such as "The War Doctrine and the Modern War" and "Security Problems", held in ECEME, are milestones in the evolution of the doctrinal thinking of this school.

He also commanded the 8th Military Region in Belém, the 10th Military Region in Fortaleza, and the IV Army in Recife. At the time he reached the Presidency of the Republic, he was Chief of Staff of the Army, a position he held from September 13, 1963, to April 14, 1964.[4]

Political career

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Main article: Presidency of Castelo Branco
Inauguration of Castelo Branco on April 15, 1964.

Castelo Branco became one of the leaders of the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état that overthrew Goulart and ended the Fourth Brazilian Republic. On April 11, Congress chose him to serve out the remainder of Goulart's term and he took the oath of office on April 15, 1964.

Castelo Branco was the second Brazilian Field Marshal to become President of the nation through a coup d'état, the first being Deodoro da Fonseca, who deposed Emperor Pedro II of Brazil in 1889, ended the Brazilian Empire and established the First Brazilian Republic.

Castelo Branco was vested with emergency powers under the First Institutional Act, which among other things allowed him to cancel the political rights of "subversive elements" for ten years. He was otherwise committed to permitting normal political activities while carrying out reform through legislation. In March 1965 municipal elections were held as planned.[5] Castelo Branco had every intention of turning over power to a civilian president when his term was due to run out in 1966.[6][7] However, the hard-line officers within the regime (known as linha-dura) with the support of War Minister Artur da Costa e Silva, wanted to stay in power for a greater period of time in order to achieve their political goals.[6][7] Events reached a breaking point in October 1965, when opposition candidates won the governorships of the major states of Minas Gerais and Guanabara. Hard-liners demanded that Castelo Branco annul the results, but he refused. Another coup was averted after Costa e Silva persuaded hard-liners to recognize the election results in return for Castelo Branco's promise to implement a tougher policy.

Castelo Branco (left) with French president Charles de Gaulle during the latter's visit to Brazil, 1964

Thereafter, Castelo Branco dropped all pretense of democracy. On October 27, 1965, he issued the Second Institutional Act, which abolished all existing political parties, restored his emergency powers, and extended his term to 1967. The numerous political parties were replaced with only two: the pro-government National Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA) and the opposition Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB). In 1967, he convened an extraordinary commission of jurists that drafted a highly authoritarian constitution.

Castelo Branco issued many repressive laws, most notably a highly draconian press law (Lei de Imprensa) near the end of his term.[8] This law continued to be valid in Brazil until 2009, when it was struck down by Brazil's Supreme Federal Court.[9]

He was succeeded in the Presidency by Costa e Silva at midnight on March 15, 1967.

Castelo Branco promoted government intervention into the economy (e.g., shutting down by decree the country's flag carrier, Panair do Brasil). Castelo Branco's government, unlike previous directly elected Presidents Juscelino Kubitschek, Jânio Quadros and João Goulart, was bankrolled from the start by the credits and loans from World Bank, International Monetary Fund and massive investment from multinational American companies, which saw the Brazilian right-wing military dictatorship as a new, economically stable Western ally against international communism in Latin America during the Cold War.[10]

Death

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Four months after leaving the Presidency, Castelo Branco died in a midair collision of Piper PA-23 aircraft near Fortaleza on 18 July 1967.[11][12]

Honours

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Foreign honours

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Portuguese pronunciation: [ũˈbɛʁtu dʒi alẽˈkaʁ kasˈtɛlu ˈbɾɐ̃ku].

References

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  1. ^ "Brazil: Five Centuries of Change: Castelo Branco". library.brown.edu. Brown University Library. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  2. ^ Dulles, John W. F. (1978). Castelo Branco: The Making of a Brazilian President. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 0-89096-043-7.
  3. ^ "Commanders of the ECEME". Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  4. ^ "Gallery of Army Chiefs of Staff". Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  5. ^ Humberto Castelo Branco Facts
  6. ^ a b "As duas fases do governo Castello Branco (1964–1967)" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  7. ^ a b "As duas fases do governo Castello Branco (1964–1967)" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  8. ^ "Some Unpleasant Business", Time, January 13, 1967.
  9. ^ Victory as federal supreme court repeals dictatorship era press law Archived July 2, 2009, at the Portuguese Web Archive, Reporters Without Borders, May 1, 2009
  10. ^ "Brazil Toward Stability", Time, December 31, 1965.
  11. ^ "Castelo Branco of Brazil Killed in Plane Collision". The New York Times. 18 July 1967. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  12. ^ Skidmore, Thomas E. (1988). The Politics of Military Rule in Brazil, 1964–85. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0195362626. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  13. ^ a b "Cidadãos Estrangeiros Agraciados com Ordens Portuguesas". Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  14. ^ "Ressaltada a Amizade França-Brasil". Correio da Manhã. 14 October 1964. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  15. ^ "Le onorificenze della Repubblica Italiana". www.quirinale.it. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Humberto Castelo Branco.
Military offices
Preceded by 24th ECEME Commander
1954–1956 		Succeeded by
Preceded by 33rd Chief of the General Staff of the Army
1963–1964 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by 26th President of Brazil
1964–1967 		Succeeded by
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