Resumo:
This research aims to understand – based on telegrams from the United States Embassy (USA),
received and sent by the State Department between 1961 and 1969, as well as documentation from the
Folha de São Paulo newspaper corresponding to the same period, as well as through bibliographical
research – how the US government, institutionally, behaved regarding the civil-military coup that
occurred in Brazil in 1964. It addresses 20th century Brazil, as well as our interventionist tradition and
the situation before the 1964 coup. It deals with US imperialism and its correlated expansionist policy.
It exposes, based on archival documents, produced mainly in the 20th century, how the deposition of
João Goulart occurred. It explains the concepts of memory, archive, forgetfulness and human rights –
contextualizing them with the collections analyzed. Based on archival theory, this study analyzes
telegrams from the U.S. Embassy received and sent by the State Department between 1961 and 1969,
as well as documents from the Folha de São Paulo newspaper from the same period. It delves deeper
into the concept of human rights archives. This research uses a qualitative approach and uses case
studies as its method. Regarding data collection procedures, this study used bibliographic and
documentary research. The results prove that the U.S. government acted to destabilize and/or
overthrow governments that were not aligned with its own interests, especially in Latin America in the
20th century. It is concluded that 1) the U.S. government, understanding the strategic importance of
Brazil for international geopolitics, institutionally supported the civil-military coup of 1964; and 2)
archival documents, as well as information professionals, especially archivists, are essential for the
development and improvement of a society, as well as for remembering the past and critically
understanding the present.
