MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro argues that Brazil's 1964 coup was really a “democratic regime of force”

He described the period of the de facto government that took over after the coup as a “democratic regime of force.”

Days after celebrating the anniversary of the military coup that led to Brazil's last dictatorship, the government of President Jair Bolsonaro is pushing for a revision of the history curriculum for the country's schools.

Education Minister Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez says he will introduce changes in school textbooks so children will get a “true idea” of that era, describing the de facto government that took over after the coup as a “democratic regime of force.”

“Brazilian history shows that March 31, 1964, was a sovereign decision of the Brazilian society. It wasn't the barracks that put Castelo Branco at the presidency,” Vélez Rodríguez said in an interview published Thursday in the newspaper Valor Economico.

Repeating Bolsonaro's interpretation of those times, the minister denied it was a coup that removed democratically elected President João Goulart, saying the military acted with the support of Congress in installing Marshal Castelo Branco, head of the Army, as the country's leader.

The Armed Forces then shut down Congress and held power for 21 years with a regime marked by censorship, political persecution, torture and death.

Vélez Rodríguez argued that Brazil adopted a “democratic regime of force because it was necessary at the time” to block the rise of Communism.

The administration of Bolsonaro, a former Army captain who is a fervent anti-leftist, also reaffirmed its controversial reading of Brazil's past to the United Nations in a telegram. It was sent in response to a comment by Fabian Salvioli, the UN special investigator on the promotion of truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence, who described the commemorations of the coup as “inadmissible.”

The government's telegram said “there was not a coup d'état but a legitimate political movement” that was supported by a majority of Brazilians to deal with “the growing threat of a communist takeover” and “terrorist organizations.”

In his interview, Vélez Rodríguez said there will be “progressive changes” in school material to rescue “a broader version of history.”