Artur da Costa e Silva Artur da Costa e Silva ( ; 1899 – 1969 ) was a Brazilian Army General , the second President of Brazil during the military regime set up by the 1964 coup d ' état . He was married to Iolanda Barbosa Costa e Silva , the daughter of a soldier . Born in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul , he reached the rank of Marshal of the Brazilian Army , and held the post of Minister of War in the government of the previous president , Marshal Castelo Branco . His government started the most oppressive stage of the military regime against communists , which would be continued and expanded under his successor , General Emílio Garrastazu Médici . It was during Costa e Silva ' s term of government that the decree known as the AI - 5 ( Institutional Act 5 ) was promulgated . This law gave the president the power to dismiss the National Congress , strip politicians of their offices of power , and institutionalize repressive methods of rule against left - wing parties and individuals . Biography . Military career . Several sources erroneously suggest that Costa e Silva ' s parents were Portuguese from Madeira . In fact , both his parents were Brazilians , although one of his great - grandparents was a Portuguese immigrant from Lisbon . Costa e Silva began his military career by entering the Military College of Porto Alegre , where he finished first of his class and commander of the cadet corps . He entered the " Escola Militar de Realengo " in Rio de Janeiro in 1918 , where he finished third of his class . Made an aspirant on January 18 , 1921 , he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in 1922 and was stationed with the 1st Infantry Regiment in Vila Militar until July 5 of that year . Costa e Silva was promoted to general on August 2 , 1952 and reached the final rank of Army General on November 25 , 1961 . He underwent training , as part of a joint program , in the United States of America from January to June 1944 , after having been an assistant instructor of general tactics at the School for Command and the Army General - Staff . He served as a military attaché in Argentina from 1950 to 1952 , and was then appointed to command of the 3rd Military Region ( Rio Grande do Sul ) from 1957 to 1959 , and even later command of the 4th Army ( Pernambuco ) from August 1961 to September 1962 . He was then appointed chief of the General Personnel Department and then the chief of the Department of Production and Works . During the government of João Goulart , Costa e Silva put down student left - wing demonstrations that broke out in the Northeast and was removed from command of the 4th Army . At the end of 1963 , He actively participated in the plot that overthrew Goulart ' s presidency ( identified with Communism during the Cold War ) , who the military accused of planning a coup d ' état . Shortly thereafter Costa e Silva was appointed the Minister of War just after of victory of the 1964 Brazilian Revolution on April 1 , 1964 and remained in that position after the start of Castelo Branco government that was inaugurated several week later on April 15 . As Minister of War , Costa e Silva defended the interests of the so - called hardliners during the Cold War , the ultraright faction of the Armed Forces . As such he was considered an acceptable candidate to succeed Castelo Branco as president . This also served well to isolate more moderate soldiers – such as future president Ernesto Geisel and his future auxiliary Golbery do Couto e Silva - from posts of responsibility . While Costa e Silva was campaigning for the Presidency of the Republic , he barely escaped death during a left - wing terrorist attack at Guararapes International Airport in Recife on July 25 , 1966 . The attack happened while he was waiting alongside around 300 other people at the airport . Several men were left dead or injured in what became known as the Attack of the Guararapes . Since the airplane that was supposed to take him had broken down earlier that day in João Pessoa , Costa e Silva decided to leave Recife by automobile , thereby avoiding the assault . Presidency . Under the constitution of 1966 , the president was to be elected indirectly , by an absolute majority of both houses of Congress . Since Congress was dominated by the military - backed National Renewal Alliance Party ( ARENA ) , the presidential campaign essentially ended when Costa e Silva was nominated as ARENA ' s candidate . He was duly elected on October 3 , 1966 and sworn in on March 15 , 1967 . The new president suppressed the Broad Front ( Frente Ampla ) , an opposition movement that had brought together politicians from the pre - 1964 period . He fought against inflation , revised government salaries and enlarged exterior trade . He also began a reform of the administrative organs , expanded the communication and transportation systems , but failed to resolve the problems in the education system . His period was used as a basis of the " Brazilian Miracle " – a growth rate ranging from 9 – 10 % per year . In 1968 , the death of college sophomore Edson Luís de Lima Souto in a confrontation with a police officer provoked a massive protest ( The Hundred Thousand March ) in Rio de Janeiro . The political situation worsened in August , when deputy Márcio Moreira Alves recommended in a speech that young women should refuse to dance with military cadets in an act of protest against the military regime . The government asked the National Congress to prosecute the deputy . Although Congress was dominated by the pro - government ARENA , the request was refused . Costa e Silva then called together the Council of National Security and published a law known as AI - 5 ( Institutional Act 5 ) which placed Brazil under a tight dictatorship . It gave him the power to summarily close Congress or any state legislature , rule by decree and summarily dismiss state governors . Under the provisions of this act , Costa e Silva closed Congress , as well as the legislatures of all states except São Paulo , for over two years . Armed resistance against Costa e Silva ' s government intensified in 1969 . The most serious case of terrorism took place on June 26 , 1969 when Diógenes José Carvalho de Oliveira , Pedro Lobo de Oliveira and José Ronaldo Tavares de Lira e Silva , members of an eleven - man terrorist cell that was part of the People ' s Revolutionary Vanguard ( VPR ) , managed to detonate a bomb at the General Headquarters of the 2nd Army in São Paulo . The car - bomb was launched ( without a driver ) towards the compound ' s front gate . The guards fired on the vehicle , which hit the external wall of the headquarters . Mário Kozel Filho , a soldier who was completing his compulsory military service and serving as a sentry on that day , left his post and ran towards the direction of the vehicle , trying to see if anyone was trapped inside . At that moment the car , filled with 50 kilograms of dynamite , exploded , damaging everything within a 300 meter radius around it . Kozel ' s body was ripped to pieces from the force of the explosion , and six other soldiers were seriously wounded . In response to this terrorist attack , the government intensified its repressive and subversive activities . After suffering a cerebral thrombosis , Costa e Silva was stripped of presidential duties on August 31 , 1969 . Although Vice President Pedro Aleixo should have succeeded him , the three armed forces ministers instead took power as a military junta under the 12th Institutional Act . Costa e Silva legally remained president until October 14 , when he was formally removed from office by the 16th Institutional Act . Taking advantage of the opportunity , new amendments to the 1967 constitution were added that gave the already highly authoritarian document an even more repressive tone . However , it was overall less repressive than the AI - 5 . This " Constitutional Amendment no . 1 " , sometimes referred to as the Constitution of 1969 , was passed into law by the junta before it gave power over to General Emílio Garrastazu Médici . Costa e Silva died on December 17 of that same year , the victim of a heart attack . Due to the heavy - handed press censorship of the time , many people did not accept the official version of events about Costa e Silva ' s illness , instead believing he had been deposed by the more conservative elements of the military regime . Regardless of such theories , it has yet to be proven that Costa e Silva was anything else but seriously ill at the time of his removal . Costa e Silva was to date the last Brazilian politician to be on the cover of the U . S . edition of TIME Magazine .