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First of April: A 13-year-old witnesses the 1964 Brazilian military coup
April 5, 2021
12:08 PM CDT
By Urariano Mota
Celso Marconi, the longest-lived cinema critic in the world, recently commented on his Facebook page: “After 1964, the 1st of April ceased to be a playful day [in Brazil]. Sad.”
He is right. The military coup took place on April 1, 1964. But as this date is the universal day of the lie, the abusive propaganda of the armed forces pretended it had been the day before. They imposed “the Revolution of the 31st of March” on the media, schools, and universities. They imagined hilarious headlines across the world if the truth were revealed: “An April Fool’s Day Revolution.” But that was the real day. On March 31st all the legitimate governments, the voters’ choice in free elections, were still in power.