Marshal Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated o ...

Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco () (September 20, 1897 – July 18, 1967) was a Brazilian military leader and politician. He served as the first president of the Brazilian military dictatorship after the 1964 military coup d'etat. Castelo Branco was killed in an aircraft collision in July 1967, soon after the end of his presidency.

Family background

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 José Martiniano de Alencar (May 1, 1829 – December 12, 1877) was a Brazilian lawyer, politician, orator, novelist and dramatist. He is considered to be one of the most famous and influential Brazilian Romantic novelists of the 19th century, ...

). He was married to Argentina Vianna, and had two children, Nieta and Paulo.

Military career

Castelo Branco joined the Brazilian Army at Rio Pardo Military School in

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

. 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 Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

. 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 legal forces that would come to grips with and overcome revolts interns hatched in São Paulo in the year 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. As Captain, the intellectual value of Castello Branco stood out and, 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 Realengo Military School. 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 The Brazilian Expeditionary Force ( pt, Força Expedicionária Brasileira, FEB), nicknamed Cobras Fumantes (literally "the Smoking Snakes"), was a military division of the Brazilian Army and Air Force that fought with Allied forces in the Me ...

(FEB) during World War II, in Italy, remaining for three hundred days on the battle fields. 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 Henrique Batista Duffles Teixeira Lott (November 16, 1894 – May 19, 1984) was a Brazilian military and political figure.CARLONI, Karla Guilherme''Marechal Henrique Teixeira Lott: a opção das esquerdas'' Niterói: UFF, 2010. Career A former ...

, 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. 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 Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...

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.

Political career

Castelo Branco became one of the leaders of the

1964 Brazilian coup d'état The 1964 Brazilian coup d'état ( pt, Golpe de estado no Brasil em 1964), colloquially known in Brazil as the Coup of 64 ('), was a series of events in Brazil from March 31 to April 1 that led to the overthrow of President João Goulart by membe ...

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 was Deodoro da Fonseca, who deposed Emperor

Pedro II of Brazil Don (honorific), Dom PedroII (2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimity, Magnanimous" ( pt, O Magnânimo), was the List of monarchs of Brazil, second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. ...

in 1889, ended the

Brazilian Empire The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pe ...

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. Castelo Branco had every intention of turning over power to a civilian president when his term was due to run out in 1966. 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. 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. 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. This law continued to be valid in Brazil until 2009, when it was struck down by Brazil's

Supreme Federal Court The Supreme Federal Court ( pt, Supremo Tribunal Federal, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for consti ...

. He was succeeded in 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 Panair do Brasil was an airline of Brazil. Between 1945 and 1965 it was considered to be the largest carrier not only in Brazil but in all of Latin America. It ceased operations in 1965. History NYRBA do Brasil (1929–1930) ''Panair do Bras ...

). 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 American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

companies, which saw the Brazilian right-wing

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

as a new, economically stable Western ally against international communism in Latin America during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

Death

Four months after leaving the Presidency, Castelo Branco died in a midair collision of small aircraft near

on 18 July 1967.

Honours

Foreign honours

* Grand Officer of the

Military Order of Aviz The Military Order of Saint Benedict of Aviz ( pt, Ordem Militar de São Bento de Avis, ), previously to 1910 ''Royal Military Order of Saint Benedict of Aviz'' ( pt, Real Ordem Militar de São Bento de Avis), previously to 1789 ''Knights'' (of ...

(October 12, 1945) * Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (October 14, 1964) * Grand Collar of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry ( pt, Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique) is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of ...

(July 21, 1965) * Grand Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (September 8, 1965)

References

External links

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Castelo Branco, Humberto De Alencar 1897 births 1967 deaths People from Fortaleza Brazilian people of Portuguese descent Marshals of Brazil State leaders killed in aviation accidents or incidents Brazilian anti-communists Geopoliticians Brazilian military personnel of World War II Presidents of Brazil Military dictatorship in Brazil People of the Cold War Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Brazil Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1967 Leaders who took power by coup Conservatism in Brazil