Document of the week! The Cursed Gods of power struggles in the dictatorship: General Albuquerque Lima and the presidential succession

Check out the full document in our collection: Telegram from William M. Rountree to the State Department regarding Albuquerque Lima's farewell dinner following his forced retirement

The Cursed Gods of power struggles in the dictatorship: General Albuquerque Lima and the presidential succession

The ultranationalist hardline general, Affonso de Albuquerque Lima, was perhaps one of the most serious threats that the dictatorship faced from the point of view of maintaining the military unit, and respecting the military hierarchy and discipline. 

Admired by many low and mid-ranking officers, including captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels, Albuquerque Lima narrowly failed to force his way into the presidency in September 1969, during the president's post-stroke political crisis. Costa e Silva, and which would result in the rise of general Medici to power.

One of the institutional obstacles for Albuquerque Lima to ascend to the presidency, in addition to the fact that he was disliked by the top generals, was the fact that he had not yet reached the top of his military career, being only a division general (three stars ), and not an army general (four stars).

When Médici became president in October 1969, he and his draconian army minister, Orlando Geisel, they would act very harshly against Albuquerque Lima. According to Army rules at the time, a soldier could not spend a certain period in the same rank. If he was not promoted, he would have to go into compulsory retirement. And that was exactly what Médici and, above all, Orlando Geisel did: they did not promote Albuquerque Lima to army general in November 1970, forcing him to retire compulsorily in March 1971.

This week's document from NACE CNV-Brasil brings this crucial episode in the history of the military dictatorship, a key moment in which the Médici government managed to consolidate the hierarchy in the barracks. The document reports on a farewell dinner organized for Albuquerque Lima in Rio, and the very harsh speech made by the general criticizing the dictatorship for the decision to retire him. 

Interestingly, as had already happened with several cases of hard-line military personnel, those who were previously right-wing radicals would start to defend the end of discretion and authoritarianism as soon as they were excluded from the military political game. Albuquerque Lima, for example, would criticize the AI-5 in your speech.

A last interesting element of the week's document is the reference that the Yankee Embassy observer makes to the film Lucchino Visconti, The Damned Gods. In contrast to what the press had reported, the observer found no more than 200 present, many of whom were retired officers and few active. 

The atmosphere in the audience is what caught the observer's attention the most, and hence the reference to the film. The Damned Gods tells the story of a traditional German business family who, out of greed for power and money, end up falling into the clutches of Nazism, transforming themselves, in the end, into beings with no morals and almost no life. For the Yankee observer at the Albuquerque Lima dinner, this was the atmosphere present at the general's farewell dinner.   

Prof. Dr. Felipe Loureiro,

Deputy coordinator of NACE CNV-Brazil,

Institute of International Relations at the University of São Paulo