There is a current consensus among historians to call the dictatorship after the 1964 coup, civil military. This is because several studies and documents recently revealed point out that support for the coup and the dictatorship had the support of organized civil sectors, such as big business through the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), and contractors. History professor at the Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Pedro Campos, who studied the performance of contractors and businessmen in the military government, says that support for the coup against João Goulart brought contractors to the center of power, which ended up favored in many public policies. “The contractors, along with other private companies, will act precisely in the sense of overthrowing Jango and his government and when the 1964 coup comes and the dictatorship is implemented, they come to power, along with other economic groups. And acted directly during the dictatorship, being greatly favored by the state policies of that period, with large budget quotes, large projects for highways, hydroelectric plants, subways, large projects presented in that period”. The great Brazilian businessmen dictated the economic policies of this period, this is marked by the appointment of Delfim Netto to the Ministry of Finance, from 1967 onwards. Under his management, the military dictatorship achieved what they call an economic miracle, economic growth driven by the investment in major works such as highways, hydroelectric plants and other infrastructure works. However, economist and visiting professor at Columbia University Marcelo Medeiros disagrees with the use of this term, “economic miracle”. For him, this growth was uneven, with the richest being most benefited in this process. “First, the term ‘miracle’ is a propaganda term, a misnomer for this period. In fact, it is an expected result of a policy that was adopted in heavy investment, based on debt. The distribution of growth for this period of the 60s and 70 is extremely concentrated. That growth was good for the wealthiest people, who appropriated most of all the income in the economy, and it wasn’t good for the middle of the distribution, for much of the distribution. It was also good for the very poorest people.” In addition, it is worth remembering that the corporate military apparatus stifled workers’ mobilizations for rights, which represented wage losses in the period and an increase in the number of accidents at work, as explained by Professor Pedro Campos. “It loses 41% of its real value, of its purchasing power between 64 and 74. Or rather, we lose almost half of the value of the minimum wage in ten years, after the 1964 coup. safety items in the work environment, this associated with the economic peak in this period, causes us to have a significant increase in work accidents during the dictatorship. Brazil will become an international record holder in this statistic. We have it throughout the dictatorship more than 60,000 dead workers”. Among these 60,000 deaths of workers in the period, Professor Pedro Campos also highlighted those that occurred in major works promoted by the dictatorship. In the construction of the Rio Niterói Bridge, according to official data, the deaths of 35 workers were recorded and in the works of the Tucuruí hydroelectric plant, 197 workers died due to accidents at work. Dictatorship Week Special Radioagência Nacional presents a special with six reports on the Military Dictatorship. The articles will be published from March 27th to April 1st.
Agência Brasil
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