Vizinhos em guarda: o anticomunismo no Brasil e na Argentina durante as ditaduras civil-militares

Abstract

This research has as its main objective to analyze, through a compared perspective, the role of anticommunist argument in the construction of the legitimacy of the last Brazilian civilmilitary dictatorship and Argentina penultimate. In Brazil, the period from 1964 to 1968 is focused on. In Argentina, the first two presidencies are relevant, from 1966 to 1971. In both cases, it was investigated the political affiliation and the criticism of the deposed presidents (João Goulart and Arturo Illia) and the official speeches that were intended to produce the consensus of the population towards the coup, the dictatorship and its actions. In addition to this, a periodic from each country has been chosen as case study to evaluate the possible impact of anticommunism and other legitimating arguments in the regional press: in the Brazilian case, it was chosen Zero Hora newspaper, from the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre; in the Argentinian case, it was analyzed the political speech of La Voz del Interior newspaper, from Cordoba province and headquartered in the capital of same name. The comparative analysis of the two observation fields, performed from the basic similarity – civil-military coups removing elected presidents in the sixties and in the context of the Cold War – walked through the complex relationship between similarities and differences. In the end, the specificities of each reality revealed itself with more intensity, showing, despite the initial interpretative parity and the presence of anticommunism in both speeches, their own path, mainly regarding the legitimating strategies. The two newspapers also revealed peculiar points of view, presenting different postures towards the authoritarian government.