In Democracy and Dictatorship: American Intervention in Brazil

 by Owen McGovern

Joe Biden called it an “assault on democracy”. On January 8th, following the victory of Lula da Silva in the Brazilian presidential election, supporters of his defeated opponent, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace. Bolsonaristas vandalised the Brazilian corridors of power, while calling on the military to remove Lula from office. With the far-right Bolsonaro having spent the run-up to the election questioning the nation's voting system, as well as dishing out praise for Brazil’s former military dictatorship, it is unsurprising to see his followers react in this way after a defeat at the ballot box. 

As stated above, the Biden administration strongly condemned this attempted insurrection; however, nearly 60 years ago, President John F. Kennedy positively welcomed a right-wing coup in Brazil in an eerily similar situation. The Brazilian president, João Goulart, had begun to implement policies such as investing in education, giving voting rights to illiterate adults, and raising the minimum wage. Crucially, he decided to force multinational companies operating in Brazil to reinvest their profits in the country rather than sending them back home. As there were many American companies in Brazil at this time, this caused relations between Goulart’s government and the White House to sour. During the 1962 parliamentary elections in Brazil the US began to fund candidates who opposed Goulart. By 1964 Goulart’s opposition, principally from the military and the upper classes, was plotting a coup. For its part, the United States pledged to supply the conspirators with fuel, and to recognise their new government. 

In March, General Castelo Branco overthrew the democratically elected Goulart and established a military government, which would last for 21 years. Under the government left-wing activists were purged by the government, and torture was commonplace, a practice defended by Bolsonaro, who at the time was a military officer. Knowledge of the dictatorship’s genocide against indigenous peoples in Brazil only arose recently, including how isolated tribes were purposely indoctrinated with smallpox. Meanwhile, having fled to Uruguay following the coup, Goulart died in 1976, likely poisoned on the orders of the dictatorship. He was the country’s last leftist president until Lula’s first electoral victory in 2003. 

Lula, although nominally a socialist, regularly draws support from the centre-right, and even endorsed George W. Bush during his presidency. He is also careful to maintain Brazil’s economy to be palatable to American businesses looking to invest there, and does very little that might upset American hegemony. This goes some way towards explaining why the US government has supported him; he is a dependable ally and of no threat to American business interest. 

In this way, the coup and the subsequent dictatorship have cast a long shadow over Brazil; today, just like during the dictatorship, American money flows through the country, and Biden arguably has more influence over Brazil than Lula does. Brazil could even be seen as an American neo colony - independent in name, but unable to pursue any policy that strays too far from Washington’s demands. The unspoken threat of political and economic isolation for countries that resist becoming American outposts permeates modern politics. The dictatorship’s line that “what is good for the United States, is good for Brazil” is a concise way of describing the American attitude towards Brazil; it is a sobering thought however to consider that this idea has become accepted in Brazilian politics, to the point where the United States no longer needs to fund a military dictatorship to maintain its dominance - the Brazilian politicians do it for them. Perhaps nothing much has changed after all.