The Revolutionary 3rd Army was the unified command of the Brazilian Army forces that joined the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état in the South region of the country. It emerged on April 2 by the self-proclamation of General Mário Poppe de Figueiredo, in charge of the 3rd Infantry Division in Santa Maria, as commander of the 3rd Army. Revolution was the self-designation of the coup d'état. The 3rd Army was based in Porto Alegre and commanded by General Ladário Pereira Teles, loyal to the João Goulart government and opposed to the coup. With Goulart's departure from Porto Alegre and the triumph of the coup over his government, on April 3 Ladário gave up his command and Poppe de Figueiredo took over the 3rd Army in Porto Alegre, ending the duality of command.
In 1961 the Third Army guaranteed Goulart's inauguration as president by participating in the Legality Campaign. In 1964 the president again relied on the 3rd Army, getting Ladario in command on April 1 and landing in Porto Alegre the next day. However, most of the southern garrisons were against him, reversing the 1961 situation. Opposition military officers, especially of the middle rank, had plotted against the president and managed during the coup to gain the support of their comrades, even those until then loyal to the government. The governors of Rio Grande do Sul, Ildo Meneghetti, and Paraná, Ney Braga, participated in the coup. Pressure from the governors in Porto Alegre forced Meneghetti to transfer his capital through Operation Farroupilha. Meanwhile, there was mobilization among the lower ranks in favor of Goulart. The prospect of a fight arose between the majority of units loyal to Poppe de Figueiredo and the minority loyal to Ladário, but Goulart did not accept the fight and left Porto Alegre.
There were six divisions, the 5th Military Region/Infantry Division (5th RM/DI) in Paraná and Santa Catarina, and the others in Rio Grande do Sul. In the 5th RM/DI the legalist commander, General Silvino Castor da Nóbrega, was prevented from disembarking, and General Dário Coelho took his place. The unit joined the coup and was provisionally incorporated into the 2nd Army, in São Paulo. In the 3rd DI and the 2nd and 3rd COs, there was adhesion with important pressure from the officers on their commanders - Poppe de Figueiredo, Joaquim de Mello Camarinha, and Hugo Garrastazu. In the 1st DC and 6th DI the situation was complex. The commander of the 1st DC, João de Deus Nunes Saraiva, remained legalistic but went to Porto Alegre, while parts of his division joined the coup. The commander of the 6th DI, Adalberto Pereira dos Santos, was a conspirator but had to leave his headquarters in Porto Alegre and command from one of his regiments in Cruz Alta, while at headquarters the command was assumed by Colonel Jarbas Ferreira de Souza and the units were in theory legalists. In all divisions there was dissension between officers in favor of and against the coup. Among the smaller units not subordinated to the divisions, the notorious legalist position was that of the 3rd Road Battalion, in Vacaria.
Context
In the 1960s the Brazilian Army had its forces concentrated in Rio de Janeiro and in the South, that is, the 1st and 3rd Armies. The 3rd Army had two Military Regions (3rd and 5th), three Infantry Divisions (3rd, 5th and 6th) and three Cavalry Divisions (1st, 2nd and 3rd). With the exception of the 5th RM and DI, in Paraná and Santa Catarina, all were in Rio Grande do Sul. The Military Regions had administrative and territorial functions, and the 5th had a merged command with that of the 5th DI. The territory of the 5th RM/DI housed a much smaller land force than that present in Rio Grande do Sul. The Infantry Divisions had around 5,500 priavates each, organized into three infantry regiments. The Cavalry Divisions, with similar numbers, had (in Rio Grande do Sul) four cavalry regiments, one motorized cavalry regiment, and one mechanized reconnaissance regiment.
In 1961 the 3rd Army ensured João Goulart's inauguration as president when its commander, General José Machado Lopes, participated with his forces in the Legality Campaign in alliance with the governor of Rio Grande do Sul Leonel Brizola. Machado Lopes left command in October 1961. The 3rd Army was again a factor in Goulart's favor in anticipating the referendum on parliamentarism in September 1962. Its commander at the time, General Jair Dantas Ribeiro, was the Minister of War in 1964. The command of the 3rd Army had been with General Benjamim Rodrigues Galhardo since August 1963.
The importance of the 3rd Army in 1961 and the fact that Rio Grande do Sul was Goulart's home state made it a natural refuge for the president's reaction to a new coup d'état. Thus, the region was a priority for the allocation of reliable officers from the government's military establishment. In 1964, the governors appeared to predominate in the south. However, in the coup d'état that year, the 3rd Army behaved contrary to its behavior in 1961, participating in the deposition of Goulart. The governors controlled the headquarters and announced they had control over all of Rio Grande do Sul, but this did not correspond to reality, with units in the interior joining the coup. The government's control over Porto Alegre was the exception.
The change reflected the nationwide trend in the Army and had as antecedents the conspiratorial activity against Goulart conducted by the Institute of Research and Social Studies (IPES) and, in parallel, by General Olímpio Mourão Filho. Mourão commanded the 3rd DI from 1961 to 1963, and articulated with the 6th DI and the 2nd and 3rd DCs. But in the conspiracy the middle ranking officers predominated under the leadership of some colonels. The conspiracy reached the commander of the 6th DI, Adalberto Pereira dos Santos, the governor elected in 1962, Ildo Meneghetti, and even General Galhardo's HQ, although he was not part of it. Both the government and the conspirators had no confidence in Galhardo. At the time of the coup, even the interior units had commanders trusted by the government, but many, realizing the government's defeat, changed positions at the last minute to save their careers. The pressure from the general staffs on the commanders was important in joining the coup. An additional factor was the absence of several trusted officers because they were on vacation.
One of the effects of the Legality Campaign was the strengthening of the lower ranks movement. The sergeants acted in defense of Goulart's inauguration, standing out, in the case of the Army, the movement in the 18th Infantry Regiment in 1961. In 1964, the sergeants in Rio Grande do Sul were again relevant in favor of Goulart. Brizola gave a speech calling on the sergeants to occupy the barracks, but the actions were isolated. In the Army as a whole, the sergeants' loyalty to the chain of command was greater than in the Air Force and Navy.
Command in Porto Alegre
On March 31, news arrived of the beginning of the coup in Minas Gerais. At 4:30 pm, General Galhardo put the 3rd Army on standby, and at 8:30 pm he informed General Adalberto of the arrival of General Ladário Pereira Teles. According to the government's plan, Galhardo would follow to the command of the Brazilian Army General Staff, in Rio de Janeiro, and Ladário to the 6th DI. As the oldest general in the 3rd Army, he would occupy its command on an interim basis after Galhardo's departure. Galhardo wanted to arrest Ladário as soon as he arrived in Porto Alegre, but failed due to lack of support from his officers. At 02:50 on April 1, he handed over command.
Ladário's inauguration went against expectations of an easy victory for the coup in Rio Grande do Sul. He supported the attempt by Leonel Brizola (now only a deputy) and Mayor Sereno Chaise, whose supporters occupied the city, to repeat the Legality Campaign. Under pressure, the state government was transferred to Passo Fundo through Operation Farroupilha. Despite the setback, he managed to maintain control of the Military Brigade, defeating the attempted requisition by the 3rd Army.
Ladário received the support of the Air Force (5th Airborne Zone) and the enmity of the Navy (5th Naval Zone). Within the 3rd Army, the General Staff was not trusted, although its chief, General Otomar Soares de Lima, was an enemy of the coup plotters. According to Colonel José Codeceira Lopes, the pro-coup elements in the General Staff had contacts in the headquarters of the 3rd RM and the 6th DI, and in the 6th Army Police Company and the 1st Guard Company; however, they knew that a reaction by force was impossible, since the troops were loyal to the government. The 3rd RM was commanded by General Floriano da Lima Machado, trusted by the military establishment. In Porto Alegre the unit commanders and sergeants of the Army, Military Police and, at least in part, the Air Force were governors.
Situation in the divisions
5th Infantry Division
Situation in Paraná The 5th RM/DI was politically divided, with supporters and opponents of the federal government. At a meeting on March 29 the consensus of the colonels in Curitiba was to "ensure discipline under all circumstances, maintain the hierarchy, and fight communism". The governors were more numerous among the sergeants. At the time of the coup the region was commanded by General Silvino Castor da Nóbrega, who "if not openly preaching, in a veiled manner defended the President's positions". Some of Silvino's subordinates considered him too close to the left, but others admired him as professional, disciplined and legalistic. The commander of the Divisionary Infantry (ID/5), Chrysantho de Miranda Figueiredo, openly defended the reforms proposed by the president.
Silvino and Chrysantho were on vacation in Rio de Janeiro. General Dario Coelho of the Divisionary Artillery (AD/5) was in interim command of the region. Colonels Rubens Barra and Reynaldo de Mello Almeida were responsible for ID/5 and AD/5. This was a disadvantage for the government: Dário sympathized with the conspirators. General Carlos Luís Guedes, an important conspirator in Minas Gerais, was on March 30 optimistic to learn of Dário's presence in command in Curitiba. Guedes and Magalhães Pinto, the Minas Gerais governor, were in contact with Ney Braga, governor of Paraná and a participant in the conspiracy; however, he also included some leftists within his government and came to have indecision that was worrisome to the conspirators. When he finally took a position in favor of the coup, he was of decisive importance. Many Paraná citizens shared this support, and the governors mounted practically no resistance.
Although some military men were aware of the impending rebellion, they did not know its date, and the coup was a surprise. General Dario's joining the conspiracy only occurred the day before, when the governor handed him a letter from Guedes. News of the leadership of Magalhães Pinto and the governors Adhemar de Barros of São Paulo and Carlos Lacerda of Guanabara created fear, as the officers did not like these politicians.
Break with the commander
On March 31, the officers in Curitiba arranged with General Silvino to send an emissary to Rio to exchange information. The one designated at 14:00 was Colonel Reynaldo, well connected to the General, with an additional mission - to bring Silvino to the coup side or convince him not to return. For Chrysantho, of a better-known position, it would not be necessary. With the flight delay, Reynaldo did not arrive until 22:00. It was already late: at 9:00 pm the RM was informed that Silvino and Chrysantho, accompanied by Ladário, would be on board in half an hour to assume their commands. The plane took off at 9:55 pm, heading to Porto Alegre with a stop in the capital of Paraná. When it flew over Curitiba at 11:45 pm, it could not land, according to Ladário's account, because of fog.