Revolutionary 3rd Army

The Revolutionary 3rd Army was the unified command of the Brazilian Army forces that joined the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état in the South region of the country. It emerged on April 2 by the self-proclamation of General Mário Poppe de Figueiredo, in charge of the 3rd Infantry Division in Santa Maria, as commander of the 3rd Army. Revolution was the self-designation of the coup d'état. The 3rd Army was based in Porto Alegre and commanded by General Ladário Pereira Teles, loyal to the João Goulart government and opposed to the coup. With Goulart's departure from Porto Alegre and the triumph of the coup over his government, on April 3 Ladário gave up his command and Poppe de Figueiredo took over the 3rd Army in Porto Alegre, ending the duality of command.

In 1961 the Third Army guaranteed Goulart's inauguration as president by participating in the Legality Campaign. In 1964 the president again relied on the 3rd Army, getting Ladario in command on April 1 and landing in Porto Alegre the next day. However, most of the southern garrisons were against him, reversing the 1961 situation. Opposition military officers, especially of the middle rank, had plotted against the president and managed during the coup to gain the support of their comrades, even those until then loyal to the government. The governors of Rio Grande do Sul, Ildo Meneghetti, and Paraná, Ney Braga, participated in the coup. Pressure from the governors in Porto Alegre forced Meneghetti to transfer his capital through Operation Farroupilha. Meanwhile, there was mobilization among the lower ranks in favor of Goulart. The prospect of a fight arose between the majority of units loyal to Poppe de Figueiredo and the minority loyal to Ladário, but Goulart did not accept the fight and left Porto Alegre.

There were six divisions, the 5th Military Region/Infantry Division (5th RM/DI) in Paraná and Santa Catarina, and the others in Rio Grande do Sul. In the 5th RM/DI the legalist commander, General Silvino Castor da Nóbrega, was prevented from disembarking, and General Dário Coelho took his place. The unit joined the coup and was provisionally incorporated into the 2nd Army, in São Paulo. In the 3rd DI and the 2nd and 3rd COs, there was adhesion with important pressure from the officers on their commanders - Poppe de Figueiredo, Joaquim de Mello Camarinha, and Hugo Garrastazu. In the 1st DC and 6th DI the situation was complex. The commander of the 1st DC, João de Deus Nunes Saraiva, remained legalistic but went to Porto Alegre, while parts of his division joined the coup. The commander of the 6th DI, Adalberto Pereira dos Santos, was a conspirator but had to leave his headquarters in Porto Alegre and command from one of his regiments in Cruz Alta, while at headquarters the command was assumed by Colonel Jarbas Ferreira de Souza and the units were in theory legalists. In all divisions there was dissension between officers in favor of and against the coup. Among the smaller units not subordinated to the divisions, the notorious legalist position was that of the 3rd Road Battalion, in Vacaria.