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Up to then, ex-President Juscelino Kubitschek (1956-61) had never publicly criticized Goulart. But now his patience had run out. He warned angrily: "Goulart has gone too far." Instead of falling back, Goulart last week went before a meeting of military police noncoms to accuse the army and navy brass of "carrying out intrigues" against him, and to label the opposition "a minority of privileged ones who live with eyes turned toward the past." So worked up was Goulart that his worried aides summoned his private physician, and the doctor stayed by his side through the rest of his speech, lest he overdo it.
The morning after Goulart's speech, the troops rose in Minas Gerais; a force of 10,000 soldiers marched off toward Rio. Then came the pause planned by the plotters, and with it a gap in the news that set all of Brazil speculating: had the revolt failed? Was it all a false alarm? The next morning, Goulart responded by ordering the 1st Infantry
Division, supposedly loyal to him, to put down the Minas Gerais revolt.
Once Goulart's troops were committed and on the road, however, all doubt ended. Suddenly, 14 Brazilian states stood in open rebellion; two of the country's four armies had risen, and the other two were wavering. When Goulart's 1st Infantry Division met the Minas Gerais troops, it promptly switched sides. The outlawed Communist-controlled General Labor Command tried to stage a general strike in Goulart's favor, with only spotty success. Goulart's leftist, Yankee-hating brother-in-law, Congressman Leonel Brizola, tried to mobilize peasant and Gaucho guerrillas he had armed, but they just stayed home.
Back to Brasília. The turning point came as rebel troops, led by anti-Jango General Amaury Kruel, flew from São Paulo over the defense lines Goulart had set up outside Rio and took over the city behind them. Within the city, Goulart's archenemy, Carlos Lacerda, had manned the governor's palace with 500 state troopers and barricaded it with 20 city garbage trucks still bearing an anti-litter slogan: "HELP US. WE ARE CLEANING UP THE CITY." When the tide turned against Jango, Lacerda went on television to proclaim emotionally, "God has taken pity on the people. God is good."
Jango fled, ironically enough, to the nation's capital—the remote, grandiose inland city of Brasília. But even Brasília threatened to become too hotly rebellious for comfort. Still spouting defiance, Jango flew south to still loyal Pôrto Alegre, homeground of his firebrand brother-in-law and capital of his home state of Rio Grande do Sul. From there, Goulart hoped to lead a "counterattack of the legalist forces." Vowed Jango: "I will not resign. I will not put a bullet through my chest. I will resist."