On This Day in History: March 28

Student protests in Brazil

Subscribers can listen to the audio of today’s post here.

Students often play a significant role in resistance to government oppression, and sometimes they pay for it with their lives. The student movement was prevalent in Latin America in the 1960s. The death of one high school student in Brazil changed the fate of the nation.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: March 28, 1968--

In 1964 there was a U.S. supported military coup d’état in Brazil to overthrow President João Goulart for the crime of being thought a communist even though he totally wasn’t a communist. But he did do things like nationalize oil companies and institute agrarian reform so of course that dirty commie had to fuckin’ go.

At first, most people in Brazil didn’t give a shit, except for the more left-wing students. So the military pre-emptively endeavored to shut them the fuck up, shutting down student organizations and arresting any students or professors thought to be left leaning. Within a couple of years people were saying fuck this military government, launching a massive strike that had secretly been organized by a banned student organization in protest.

The more students protested, the more violent the police became. That came to head on March 28, 1968, in Rio de Janeiro. On that day Edson Luís de Lima Souto, an impoverished 18-year-old, was part of a protest against how expensive and low quality the food was at state-run cafeterias for low-income students.

Military police showed up and dispersed the students, but some of them, Edson included, took refuge inside the restaurant. The police broke into the restaurant and the police commander walked up to Edson and shot him point blank in the chest, killing him. Another student named Benedito Frazão Dutra was injured and died later.

Then everything really went to shit.

Students organized a funeral for Edson that turned into a massive protest. Fifty thousand attended and Rio de Janeiro came to a halt. Other protests were also held across the country to express anger at Edson’s death and how shitty the government was, including a protest by 4,000 students at the University of São Paulo.

Following the funeral, clashes between students and military police became increasingly violent. Students figured well shit the po-po are just gonna murder us anyway so fuck it lets arm ourselves. They threw rocks and Molotov cocktails and used other makeshift weapons, often barricading themselves in student buildings. The cops, in response, killed a whole lot more students.

In late June another 100,000 marched in Rio, chanting for the overthrow of the dictatorship. This protest prompted Brazil’s dictator to attempt negotiation with the student leaders, but it fell apart when he demanded an end to the demonstrations and they told him to get fucked. And so, brutal repression followed, with mass arrests and torture of students. The following December the government implemented “Institutional Act Number Five” (AI-5) which basically said that civil liberties no longer existed in Brazil.

It was the death of the student movement in Brazil. AI-5 would not be repealed for another decade.

Support keeping this daily column free and get access to subscriber only content:

Get the book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.