In the coming weeks it will be 60 years since the coup against Joao Goulart in Brazil. Failed or completed coups d'état were common practices during the 20th century.
Curzio Malaparte, Italian journalist, diplomat and writer who initially adhered to fascism and then abjured it, observed the phenomenon in Europe in the 1920s. Now it is different, the democracies have put down more roots, the Armed Forces are more reluctant to be dragged into coup adventures.