The 1937 Brazilian coup d'état (), also known as the coup, was a military coup in Brazil led by President Getúlio Vargas with the support of the Armed Forces on 10 November 1937.
Vargas had risen to power in 1930 with the backing of the military, following a revolution that ended a decades-old oligarchy. Vargas ruled as provisional president until the National Constituent Assembly election in 1934. Under a new constitution, Vargas became the constitutional president of Brazil, but following a 1935 communist insurrection, speculation grew over a potential self-coup. Candidates for the 1938 presidential election appeared as early as late 1936. Vargas could not seek re-election, but he and his allies were unwilling to abandon power. Despite loosening political repression after the communist revolt, strong sentiment for a dictatorial government remained, and increasing federal intervention in state governments would pave the way for a coup to take place.
With preparations beginning officially on 18 September 1937, senior military officers used the Cohen Plan, a fraudulent document, to provoke the National Congress into declaring a state of war. After his state's militia was incorporated into the federal forces by a state of war commission in his state, Rio Grande do Sul Governor , who was opposed to Vargas, went into exile in mid-October 1937. State governors of Bahia and Pernambuco were also attacked by commissions in their states. drafted a new, ambitious constitution for Vargas to become a dictator. By November, the President held most of the power in the country, and there was little to stop the plan. On the morning of 10 November 1937, the military surrounded the National Congress. The cabinet expressed approval for the new corporatist constitution, and a radio address by Vargas proclaimed the new regime, the (New State).
In the coup's aftermath, a semi-fascist, authoritarian state, modeled on European fascist countries, was installed in Brazil. Individual liberties and rights were stripped away, Vargas's term of office was prolonged by six years, which turned to eight, and the power of the states evaporated. A plebiscite for the new constitution was promised, but never held. Vargas ruled as dictator until another coup d'état, in 1945, reestablished democracy. Foreign reactions to the 1937 coup were mostly negative. South American countries were hostile to it. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy supported the coup, but in the United States and the United Kingdom, the overall reaction was unfavorable.
Background
Brazil in the early 1930s
The First Brazilian Republic ended with the Revolution of 1930. The 1929 economic crisis undermined the power of an oligarchy which had dominated Brazilian politics since the 1890s and concentrated power in the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The oligarchy collapsed when President Washington Luís, from São Paulo, nominated another person from his home state, Júlio Prestes, to succeed him instead of acting within the terms of the inter-state agreement and nominating a candidate from Minas Gerais. In response, Minas Gerais formed the with the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Paraíba to counter the move, nominating Getúlio Vargas for the presidency in the upcoming 1930 general election. Prestes's narrow victory in March, along with the unrelated assassination of Vargas's running mate João Pessoa in July, prompted Vargas and his supporters to initiate an armed revolution in October that year and install a new regime within Brazil.
In the revolution's aftermath, Vargas became provisional president, dissolved the National Congress and other representative bodies, established an emergency regime, replaced almost all the state presidents with "interventors", and assumed all policy-making power. At that time, the military was in support of Vargas. The , people from São Paulo, instigated a brief civil war between 9 July to 2 October 1932—the Constitutionalist Revolution—but failed to defeat the federal government. Vargas permitted elections in May 1933 to a National Constituent Assembly, which met until 1934. In July of that year, the assembly produced a constitution and elected Vargas to a four-year term as constitutional president ending on 3 May 1938, beginning a quasi-democratic period.
Communist insurrection (1935)