João Belchior Marques Goulart, also known as Jango, was born on March 1, 1919 in the municipality of Sao Borja in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. His father was a wealthy landowner and a close friend of fellow gaucho Getulio Vargas. Goulart spent his childhood between Sao Borja and the state capital of Porte Alegre, attending several schools. He was never a remarkable student, preferring to focus on his active social life and soccer skills. He enrolled in law school at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, at the behest of his father. His academic performance at university was sub-par, but he nevertheless graduated in 1939. He never practiced law.
President John F. Kennedy stands with President João Goulart of Brazil in front of a car as Goulart leaves the White House. Photograph by Abbie Rowe, White House Photographs. From the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.
Goulart’s father died a few years later in 1943, and the young Jango inherited his land holdings, becoming one of the most influential ranchers of the region. He was invited to join the PTB (Brazilian Workers’ Party) in 1945 by Getulio Vargas, who was a close family friend. He was elected to the Rio Grande do Sul State Assembly in 1947 and quickly became Vargas’s political confidant. Vargas’ campaign for the presidency in 1950 was launched at a party in Granja Sao Vicente, one of Goulart’s properties. During that same election cycle, Goulart joined the Chamber of Deputies with a record of second-to-most votes for a PTB candidate in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. He took office in February 1951, but soon took a temporary leave to work as Secretary of the Interior and Justice for Ernesto Doreles, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul. This was also short-lived, as Goulart was asked by Vargas to serve as Minister of Labor because of his influence within the labor movement.
The Vargas government was going through a labor crisis. Workers were striking against low wages, while the administration received criticism from the right—specifically, the army and members of the conservative UDN (National Democratic Union) party. As Minister of Labor, Goulart advocated for the creation of a social safety net and a 100 percent increase in wages in large urban areas. The business community, who would have had to pay for their workers’ increased wages, considered this measure extreme and called for a 42 percent increase. Vargas signed the 100 percent minimum wage increase into law, but Goulart was nevertheless forced to resign due to his unpopularity within the army, the UDN, and the business community. After Vargas’ suicide in 1954, Goulart assumed the role of leader within the PTB and was widely regarded as Vargas’s protégé.
The PTB suffered a difficult election cycle in 1954; Goulart himself was defeated in a senatorial bid. In the next elections, in 1955, the PSD (Social Democratic Party) had Minas Gerais Governor Juscelino Kubitschek as its likely candidate, and Kubitschek had made it clear that he was considering an alliance between the PSD and the PTB. Goulart was the likely vice-presidential candidate in such an alliance, but he was still a difficult candidate because of his connection to Vargas’ regime. His role in the wage crisis of 1951 was still remembered in a negative light on the right. The military made several attempts to veto his candidacy as vice-president and smear his reputation in the press. Nevertheless, Kubitschek announced Goulart as his running mate in June. They won the election and took office in 1956. Goulart was once again elected vice president in 1960, this time as Jânio Quadros’s running mate.
By August 1961, the Quadros government proved unable to act within the increasingly polarizing Brazilian political system. When the president resigned unexpectedly, Vice-President Goulart was on a diplomatic trip to communist China. Some in the military wanted to veto Goulart’s swearing-in as president. They were suspicious of his leftist tendencies, nationalism, and his alleged communist ties. Rio Grande do Sul Governor Leonal Brizola mobilized the state’s forces in support of Goulart and started a campaign in favor of legalismo [legalism], advocating for the army to allow Goulart to take office. The two sides reached a compromise; he would be allowed to take office in a parliamentary system with his powers as president greatly reduced.
Goulart took office in a difficult situation, under pressure to maintain growth while simultaneously reducing inflation. The first order of business was to revert to a system in which the president had greater power, which Goulart achieved in 1963 by holding a nationwide plebiscite. Problems were not so easy to solve on the economic front. Growing, unabated inflation loomed like a black cloud over the Goulart administration. His finance minister, Celso Furtado, had devised a three-year plan for the economy during the beginning of the Goulart years, but the government’s reluctance to sacrifice growth for stabilization meant the plan had little effect. Frustrated by the unwillingness of the right to work with his government, Goulart found himself veering further left after 1963.
In 1964 he announced his plan for Reformas Basicas (Basic Reforms), which involved agricultural, financial, electoral, and educational reforms, among others. These reforms were geared toward the plight of the poor and were received very negatively by the armed forces and other conservative sectors of society. On March 13, 1964, Goulart participated in a rally in Rio’s Central do Brasil, appearing with fellow populist Leonel Brizola before a crowd of 150,000 people including union members, students, and public servants. In his speech, he announced several leftist measures that he would institute by presidential decree, including the granting of voting rights to the illiterate, the nationalization of foreign oil refineries, and the seizure of agricultural land bordering railways and highways.
There was significant upper- and middle-class backlash against the measures, as well as criticism from the conservative Catholic community. The army saw this as an opportunity. They were greatly opposed to Goulart’s new leftist agenda and wanted the president out of power after he had failed to side with the higher ranks during lower-ranking military revolts in 1964. The military coup began on March 31, while Goulart was in Rio. The president flew to Brasilia in an attempt to amass support and maintain control of the government, with no success. He then fled to Rio Grande do Sul, and the presidency was declared vacant.
After a few days in his home state, João Goulart admitted defeat and went into exile in Uruguay. He bought a farm on the border between Uruguay and Brazil, and for two years focused on his cattle. Goulart took part in the Frente Ampla (Broad Front) with Juscelino Kubitschek and Carlos Lacerda, attempting to build a coalition with enough support to turn people from the dictatorship, but the unusual alliance led nowhere and marked the end of Goulart’s political activities. He died on one of his farms in Argentina on December 6, 1976, allegedly of a heart attack. His body was never submitted to an autopsy, giving rise to speculation that he was assassinated.