In São Paulo, protesters graphite former army colonel’s home accused of torture during the military dictatorship/ Photo: EBC- Agência Brasil

Exactly 50 years ago, the military took power in Brazil and forced President João Goulart into exile in Uruguay. Planned with the support of the United States, which feared the influence of Cuba and the Soviet Union in Latin America, the coup caused the death or disappearance of 329 Brazilians, and the imprisonment of many others, including the current President Dilma Rousseff, who at 22 years fought against the dictatorship, and later the union leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Lula, who  commanded, 25 years before reaching the presidency, the largest strike in the history of the country, in support of better wages and conditions of work and laid the foundation for the creation in 1980 of the largest left-wing party of the Americas, the Workers’ Party.