Office of the Historian

195. Telegram From the Embassy in Brazil to the Department of State1

Rio de Janeiro, March 31, 1964, 9 a.m.

2121. Pass White House, OSD, JCS, CINCSOUTH, CIA.

[less than 1 line of source text not declassified] has just received word from [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] that “balloon has gone up” in Minas Gerais and that revolt against Goulart government expected to start in Sao Paulo in about two hours. We have no confirmation. No details available at this point other than report General Mourao Filho is in command. (Mourao Filho is Commander 4th Military Region with headquarters in Juiz de Fora.)2

Gordon
  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964–66, POL 23–9 BRAZ. Secret; Flash; Limdis. Repeated Immediate to Brasilia, Sao Paulo, and Recife. Received in the Department at 7:12 a.m., and passed to White House, CIA, JCS, OSD, and CINCSO.↩
  2. At 10 a.m., the CIA confirmed that “an anti-Goulart revolutionary movement has actually started in Minas Gerais and that Mourao Filho is leading an unspecified number of troops toward Rio de Janeiro from Juiz de Fora.” ([telegram number not declassified], March 31; Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Brazil, Vol. II, 3/64)↩