La prensa carioca y el autoritarismo electoral de los años 30:

la feroz disputa de narrativas sobre la dictadura de Vargas de 1930-1934

Resumen

How did the Provisional Government led by Getúlio Vargas between 1930 and 1934 forge the construction of a favorable narrative about its own acts before the Rio de Janeiro press at the time (ABREU, 2019)? In Brazil, the literature has pointed out the complex relationship established by the press with the military dictatorship of 1964-1985 (CAPELATO; PRADO, 1980; MOTTA, 2017), similarly to that observed in comparative studies (MOTTA; TOULHOAT, 2022). The Brazilian authoritarian experience of 1930-1934, however, did not receive the same attention. This article examines how the newspaper O Radical, created to advocate in favor of the 1930 Revolution, reported the critical moments that challenged the permanence of the Vargas dictatorship and the consequent control of the Provisional Government over the process of re-constitutionalization of the country. We will analyze the periodical’s journalistic coverage in critical political conjunctures from 1932 to 1933, contrasting with what was published by Diário de Notícias, which was in opposition to the dictatorship. Analyses of documents reveals how O Radical sought to portray the “pure” interests of the people and the government as one (“us”, the homeland) in opposition to the “corrupt” impetus of political opponents (“them”), in order to disseminate the official version of the historical process known as the Constitutionalist Revolution and the preparations for the convening of the Constituent Assembly. With this strategy typical of populista rhetoric (MUDDE; KALTWASSER, 2017), the newspaper vocalized the revolutionary discourse, in line with the electoral authoritarianism of the 1930s (RICCI, 2019).