| Artur da Costa e Silva | |
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27th President
of Brazil
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In office March 15, 1967 – August 31, 1969 |
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| Vice President | Pedro Aleixo |
| Preceded by | Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco |
| Succeeded by | Military Junta |
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| Born | October 3, 1899 Taquari, Rio Grande do Sul |
| Died | December 17, 1969 (aged 70) Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Political party | ARENA |
| Spouse(s) | Iolanda Barbosa Costa e Silva |
Artur da Costa e Silva (Portuguese pronunciation: [aʁˈtuʁ dɐ ˈkɔstɐ i ˈsiwvɐ]; October 3, 1899 – December 17, 1969) was a Brazilian Army General, the second President of Brazil during the military regime set up by the 1964 coup d'état. He was married to Iolanda Barbosa Costa e Silva, the daughter of a soldier. Born in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, he reached the rank of Marshal of the Brazilian Army, and held the post of Minister of War in the government of the previous president, Marshal Castelo Branco.
His government started the most oppressive stage of the military regime against communists, which would be continued and expanded under his successor, General Emílio Garrastazu Médici.
It was during Costa e Silva's term of government that the decree known as the AI-5 (Institutional Act 5) was promulgated. This law gave the president the power to dismiss the National Congress, strip politicians of their offices of power, and institutionalize repressive methods of rule against left-wings parties and individuals.
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The son of Portuguese traders who immigrated from Madeira, Artur da Costa e Silva began his military career by entering the Military College of Porto Alegre, where he finished first of his class and commander of the cadet corps.
He entered the Escola Militar de Realengo in Rio de Janeiro in 1918, where he finished third of his class. Made an aspirant on January 18, 1921, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in 1922 and was stationed with the 1st Infantry Regiment in Vila Militar until July 5 of that year.
Costa e Silva was promoted to general on August 2, 1952 and reached the final rank of Army General on November 25, 1961. He underwent training, as part of a joint program, in the United States of America from January to June 1944, after having been an assistant instuctor of general tactics at the School for Command and the Army General-Staff. He served as a military attache in Argentina from 1950 to 1952, and was then appointed to command of the 3rd Military Region (Rio Grande do Sul) from 1957 to 1959, and even later command of the 4th Army (Pernambuco) from August 1961 to September 1962. He was then appointed chief of the General Personnel Department and then the chief of the Department of Production and Works.
During the government of João Goulart, Costa e Silva put down student left-wing demonstrations that broke out in the Northeast and was removed from command of the 4th Army. At the end of 1963, He actively participated in the plot that overthrew Goulart's presidency (identified with Communism during the Cold War), who the military accused of planning a coup d'etat. Shortly thereafter Costa e Silva was appointed the Minister of War just after of victory of the 1964 Brazilian Revolution on April 1, 1964 and remained in that position after the start of Castelo Branco government that was inaugurated several week later on April 15.
As Minister of War, Costa e Silva defended the interests of the so-called hardliners during the Cold War, the ultraright faction of the Armed Forces. As such he was considered an acceptable candidate to succeed Castelo Branco as president. This also served well to isolate more moderate soldiers - such as future president Ernesto Geisel and his future auxiliary Golbery do Couto e Silva- from posts of responsibility.
While Costa e Silva was campaigning for the Presidency of the Republic, he barely escaped death during a left-wing terrorist attack at Guararapes International Airport in Recife on July 25, 1966. The attack happened while he was waiting alongside around 300 other people at the airport. Several men were left dead or injured in what became known as the Attack of the Guararapes. Since the airplane that was supposed to take him had broken down earlier that day in João Pessoa, Costa e Silva decided to leave Recife by automobile, thereby avoiding the assault.
Costa e Silva was elected president in an indirect election by the National Congress on October 3, 1966 due the Revolution of 1964 and was sworn in on March 15, 1967.
The new president suppressed the Broad Front (Frente Ampla), an opposition movement that had brought together politicians from the pre-1964 period. He fought against inflation, revised government salaries and enlarged exterior trade. He also began a reform of the administrative organs, expanded the communication and transportation systems, but failed to resolve the problems in the education system. His period was used as a basis of the "Brazilian Miracle" - a growth rate ranging from 9-10% per year.
In 1968, the death of college sophomore Edson Luís de Lima Souto in a confrontation with a police officer provoked a massive protest (The Hundred Thousand March) in Rio de Janeiro. The political situation worsened in August, when deputy Márcio Moreira Alves recommended in a speech that young women should refuse to dance with military cadets in an act of protest against the military regime. The government asked the National Congress to prosecute the deputy, but the request was denied. Costa e Silva then called together the Council of National Security and published a law known as AI-5 (Institutional Act 5) which gave the president the power to dismiss the National Congress, strip politicians of their offices of power, and institutionalize repressive methods of rule.
Armed resistance against Costa e Silva's government intensified in 1969. The most serious case of terrorism took place on June 26, 1969 when Diógenes José Carvalho de Oliveira, Pedro Lobo de Oliveira and José Ronaldo Tavares de Lira e Silva, members of an eleven-man terrorist cell that was part of the People's Revolutionary Vanguard (VPR), managed to detonate a bomb at the General Headquarters of the 2nd Army in São Paulo. The car-bomb was launched (without a driver) towards the compound's front gate. The guards fired on the vehicle, which hit the external wall of the headquarters. Mário Kozel Filho, a soldier who was completing his compulsory military service and serving as a sentry on that day, left his post and ran towards the direction of the vehicle, trying to see if anyone was trapped inside. At that moment the car, filled with 50 kilograms of dynamite, exploded, damaging everything within a 300 meter radius around it. Kozel's body was ripped to pieces from the force of the explosion, and six other soldiers were seriously wounded. In response to this terrorist attack, the government intensified its repressive and subversive activities.
After suffering a cerebral thrombosis, Costa e Silva was removed from the office of president on August 31, 1969, with a Military Junta ruling in substitution of his place.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, new amendments to the 1967 constitution were added that gave the document an even more authoritarian tone than previously; giving over even more power to the military regime, but which was overall less repressive than the AI-5. This "Constitutional Correction no. 1", sometimes referred to as the Constitution of 1969, was passed into law by the junta before it gave power over to General Médici. Costa e Silva died on December 17 of that same year, the victim of a heart attack. Due to the large amount of censorship practiced against the press at that time, many people did not accept the official version of events about Costa e Silva's illness, instead believing he had been deposed by the more conservative elements of the military regime. Regardless of such theories, it has yet to be proven that Costa e Silva was anything else but seriously ill at the time of his removal.
Costa e Silva was to date the last Brazilian politician to be on the cover of the U.S. edition of TIME Magazine.[1]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco |
President
of Brazil 1967 – 1969 |
Succeeded by Military Junta |
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