70 years ago, he faced a military insurrection that tried to overthrow him. In February 1956, it lasted 19 days and came to an end after government troops put down the uprising.
The coup plotters, however, escaped criminal and disciplinary proceedings because, at the request of the president, he granted them amnesty.
One of the leaders was Major Haroldo Veloso. After being kept in the Air Force thanks to the amnesty, he continued conspiring against JK and, in 1959, led a new coup attempt.
According to documents from the Archive, the government senators denounced the attempt to impose a dictatorship.
“The aviators intended to drag national opinion, skillfully exploited by a demagogic campaign stimulated by those interested in implementing an exceptional regime”, accused Vitorino Freire (PSD-MA).
JK’s opponents minimized the seriousness of the uprising. “Young men inspired by noble patriotic impulses are perhaps writing a page of selflessness, but to the detriment of the interests of the country’s democratic life. We cannot condemn them”, defended Juraci Magalhães (UDN-BA).
JK took office on January 31, 1956, and the Jacareacanga Revolt broke out on the night of February 10. On that Carnival Friday, two aviators —Veloso and Captain José Lameirão— stole a plane loaded with weapons from an Air Force base in Rio and flew to Pará, where they dominated the airstrips at Serra do Cachimbo and Jacareacanga, Santarém, Itaituba and Belterra.
In a manifesto, they defended the overthrow or resignation of JK because, among other allegations, he was keeping communists in strategic posts in the Armed Forces.
The content of the manifesto is illustrative of the instability and polarization that marked the democratic period between the end of the Estado Novo dictatorship, in 1945, and the beginning of the military dictatorship, in 1964. The country was split between getulism (represented by the PSD and PTB) and antigetulism (led by UDN).
This last group, which was on the right of the political spectrum and saw the Getulistas as corrupt and inclined towards communism, had the support of a significant portion of the Armed Forces.
The anti-Getulistas attempted coups in 1954, in the episode marked by Vargas’ suicide; in 1955, when two presidents who wanted to prevent JK from taking office were impeached; in 1956 and 1959, with the revolts in Jacareacanga and Aragarças, both against JK; and in 1961, when military ministers tried to block the inauguration of .
“These attempts were embryos of the 1964 coup, through which the anti-Getulist forces finally managed to take power”, summarizes historian Sandro Gomes dos Santos, who studies the revolts of 1956 and 1959.
The mutineers’ expectation was that, once the Jacareacanga Revolt began, soldiers from all over the country would join in en masse. That didn’t happen. They managed to get the active participation of a few military personnel and some residents of Pará.
The highest ranking member was Major Paulo Vítor da Silva, also from the Air Force. He was sent to the Amazon with the mission of convincing his friend Haroldo Veloso to surrender. Upon arriving in Santarém, however, he joined the rebels.
The government only managed to put down the rebellion on February 29, when federal troops arrested Veloso. Lameirão and Paulo Vítor escaped to .
There was one victim: a civilian known as Cazuza, Veloso’s main assistant, died from submachine gun fire.
The delay in putting down the revolt had three reasons. The first was the remote location. Veloso knew the Pará jungle well and had the respect of the population — he was one of the big names in the National Air Mail and had participated in the opening of airstrips in the Amazon, including Jacareacanga.
The second was the difficulty in recruiting soldiers. Around 60 men from the Air Force and Navy, sympathetic to the mutineers, refused to participate in the siege of Jacareacanga. Finally, the third reason was the government’s commitment to avoiding bloodshed.
In the opinion of historian Sandro dos Santos, Jacareacanga helps to undo mistaken images of history and politics:
“The idea that polarization is a recent phenomenon is nothing more than a myth. What we see today is an unfolding of divisions present in the 1950s. There is a continuity, albeit with an updated guise. The same goes for the intervention of the military in politics, which did not begin in 1964. They have been involved in politics since the Paraguayan War.”
Another misconception, according to him, is that the JK government was a peaceful period.
“Unlike the image of five years of peace that emerges from historiography, official propaganda and the president himself managed to consolidate, the JK government was threatened by crises and military uprisings. The case of Jacareacanga shows the attempt to erase the conflicts from the collective memory to focus on modernity and the bossa-nova president.”
JK took office weakened. He faced resistance from anti-Getulist forces, who saw him, with his deputy João Goulart, as Vargas’ heir. Furthermore, he had come to power with just 35.5% of the votes — there was no second round.
Having defeated the Jacareacanga rebels, JK decided that they would not be punished and sponsored an amnesty project in Congress.
The government senator Gomes de Oliveira (PTB-SC) spoke: “The amnesty will not be a favor to the beneficiaries, but a grand gesture that aims to calm their spirits and encourage them in their efforts for the good of the country.”
Oppositionist Argemiro de Figueiredo (UDN-PB) also defended amnesty for the military because they were swallowed up by the “climate of exaltation and revolt” that, as a result of “government errors”, dominated Brazil. Added:
“Serenity does not always survive the climate of passions. There is no shortage of desperate people who, deeming the processes of evolution and reform useless, throw themselves at the blow of violent solutions.”
JK asked for amnesty because he believed that polarization would cool and, in this way, he would govern without great resistance. The opposition, in turn, supported the measure not only because it had ideological affinity with the mutineers, but also to prevent the government from capitalizing on the conciliation discourse alone.
The amnesty was approved in May. Veloso was released, and Lameirão and Paulo Vítor returned to Brazil. Everyone continued in the Air Force.
In Veloso’s case, the amnesty paved the way for recidivism. In 1959, he led another insurrection to overthrow JK, the Aragarças Revolt, which was also suppressed.
“From the first madness, that of Jacareacanga, I said that granting amnesty to political criminals was dangerous. Now they are making this second move. We are checking how right I was”, said Senator Caiado de Castro (PTB-DF).
In the case of Aragarças, JK did not allow the amnesty. Veloso fled Brazil. The major was amnestied in 1961, when JK was no longer in power, he supported the 1964 coup and was elected deputy for Arena, the party supporting the dictatorship.
