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The official language of Brazil is Portuguese.
Actually, the dictatorship has very little, or nothing at all to do, to the fact that older sets, sets from the 50's and 60's are so hard to find here. It happens because the country is VERY big, and the economic development of the different regions had then, and still have now, a lot of inequalities. The richer, industrialized parts got TV first, very early, in 1950, 1951. The poorer the region, the later it got television. In some parts of Brazil there was no TV at all even in the late 1970's and early 1980's. And in the most remote locations of the country - like in some very isolated spots in the middle of the Amazon jungle, inhabited mostly by a few scattered indian tribes - the first TV sets appeared only in 1998, AND need a sattelite dish to receive programs AND can only be turn on a few ours a day, because those places got no electricity, so the equipment must run on generators.
As for the military dicatorship... well, from the perspective of repression, it was not all that terrible, really. They can't be compared to the Nazis, and even to the other Latin-American dictatorships of that period. The military dicatatorship of Argentina, for instance, killed 30.000 people. The dictatorship of general Pinochet, in Chile, killed some 3.000. The dictatorship of mister Castro, in Cuba, killed some 40.000 according to the statistics. The Brazilian dicatorship of the 1960's and 70's killed 200 people. Obviuosly they tortured some 400 people, and censored the press, and extinguished political parties, but they were not really the most bloodthirsty of dictators. Hundreds of people fled Brazil and sought for political asylum in Chile ( before Pinochet ), in France, in Portugal. Those who were communists sought asylum in the coutries behind the Iron Curtain.
The worse they did to Brazil was not in killing, or repressing. Was on the economics of the country. They messed everything pretty good. Incomes got lower than ever, the rich became richer and the poorer became poorer. They made a HUGE foreign debt, that wrecked the national situation for DECADES, and when they left power ( in 1985 ) the country was nearing hyperinflation. And they ruined the public education system, that was the second best in Latin America before their coup in 1964.
All this is kind of tragicomic, really. Because they tried many times in the years before 1964 to took power by force, and all this on the argument that THEY were the "champions of Democracy" , and wanted to "save it" from what they called the "corrupt, populist and authoritarian civil politicians." Many people actually believed all this nonsense. But those "corrupt, populist and authoritarian civil politians" - namely President Vargas and his political heirs - were the ones that really modernized Brazil. Before the Revolution of 1930, when President Vargas rose to power, Brazil was nothing more than a giant coffee farm, with slave labor and fraudulent elections. President Vargas indeed ruled as a dictator from 1930 to 1945, but he did many necessary reforms and had STRONG popular support. US President Franklin Roosevelt was a good friend of President Vargas. When those military ousted President Vargas from power in 1945 they did so against the will of the vast majority of the people. So much that was true, that 5 years later Vargas returned to power in what were truly recognized the world over as completely free and democratic elections. Vargas policies were very much like those of the "New Deal." He faced a strong and violent opposition against him, they spent the next years trying to make a coup again, like in 1945. On August of 1954 the military were ready again, and the country was near civil war. President Vargas took a dramatic measure: took his own life. Committed suicide on the morning of August, 24, 1954, and left a very emotional farewel letter to the Brazilian people. This prevented the coup from happening at that time. The people was SO ANGRY, the ordinary working man from whom Vargas was a hero made so many violent demonstrations against the enemies of the President that they could not even try to seize power on that day. The political heirs of President Vargas, all chosen on free and democratic elections, ruled Brazil for the next ten years, but in many occasions during this period ( in 1955, 1956, 1959 and 1961 ) the military did tried to overthrown them. Those man the military called "corrupt, authoritarian and populist" instituted labor lagislation rights, forged the first Industrial Revolution in Latin America, prevented Brazil to actually fall into communism and created a good quality public education system. They left a legacy of solid national development. That's why almost everybody here seems nostalgic of the years prior to 1964. Only right-wing extremists are actually crazy enough to praise the years the military were in control.
To be fair, not all military were in favor of the coup, and even among those that actually took part on it, many didn't wanted the military to remain in power for so long. Also, the decision of President Goulart ( the President that was deposed in 64 ) of refusing to order the resistence against the coup made it easier for the pro-coup faction of the military to seize control of the country. President Goulart reasoning was that he didn't want to shed the blood of his fellow countrymen, and also, he didn't believed that the military were actually capable of remaining in power for very long. He was not alone on this thinking, as many other politicians also believed that the military take-over was going to be a short-term situation. Unfortunately, they were all wrong.
Do not think that I hate the Brazilian military because I am writting this. Those are only Historical facts, the truth. My father is a military man, he is a retired sargeant of the Brazilian Navy, and he was never sympathetic to the military dictatorship. Also, many high-ranking officers of the three Forces, even generals and a Marshall, were victims of persecutions after 1964 because they were against the coup.
The Brazilian dictatorship was more like a macarthism policial state than a bloodthirsty killing terror regime like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia.
I make apologies to the moderators of this forum for writting so much about political facts - which I know is forbidden here - but since I got asked about those facts, the only thing I could do was to make my best to explain them in the most precise manner. Also is a subject that really fascinates me, the subject of political History.
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