Until recently there was no doubt about the state of exception that began in 1964 in Brazil. But various voices of authority have begun to relativize or even deny the very harmful and long-lasting dictatorship through which we have passed. There are even some who have returned to using the expression “revolution” to say that there was no coup d’état in 1964.
To refute any of these absurd statements, it is enough to observe that the whole Coup effectively took place with a legislative session, on April 2nd 1964, which declared the vacancy of the Presidency of the Republic. For this very reason, some affirm that the date of the Coup is neither March 31st nor April 1st, but April 2nd, 1964. Well, from the declaration of vacancy there was an infinite number of administrative/legislative acts that claimed to be supported by Brazilian legislation, but that could only have any formal validity because of that declaration of vacancy. Including the inauguration of successive generals in the Presidency.
It so happens that in 2013 the National Congress passed a Resolution (No. 4 of 2013-CN, published on November 29, 2013 in the DOU) making that legislative session, and consequently the declaration of vacancy, null and void. Legally, this means that there is no legitimacy in all acts that followed. This is the definitive and irrefutable proof that there was a coup d’état in Brazil in 1964, followed by a period of more than twenty years of state of exception, because there was no democratic normality even in the presidential inaugurations.
The democratic rule of law was reestablished, without a shadow of a doubt, with the promulgation of the 1988 Federal Constitution, although the military rulers ended their cycle in 1985.
It is very important to recover this decision of the National Congress that sacramented once and for all the truth that there was a state of exception in Brazil since 1964.