Bernd 08/28/2020 (Fri) 03:28:06 No.39550 del
Mourão Filho's diary entries at dawn were contemplative of his past life and somber, expecting defeat with death in the air. "The whole Army comes after me".
The phone calls included:
-Putting his troops in readiness
-To Guedes, calling a battalion of the 12th Infantry
-To politician Falcão to inform Carlos Lacerda
-Informing São Paulo

Falcão also informed Castelo Branco, who helped push along the rebellion by also contacting the paulistas, but chiefly tried to stop it. He sought contact with Guedes and Magalhães. The former handed a fait accompli, "our troops are moving in all direction", and the latter said he could demobilize the police but for the army that'd be a lost cause.

"I'm not inviting anyone for honors, decorations or promotions. I invite you to die with me."
And Mourão Filho received overwhelming, overt support from his men. The most notable resistance was in the Sergeants' School, which declared itself neutral, and 10th Infantry's commander, recently-installed and tied to the Minister of War; when he heard the Minister wasn't on board, he had to be given vacations and replaced by a staff officer, Liutenant Colonel Everaldo. Two other colonels didn't want to act, either, and were ordered to stay home, "neither intervening nor bothering".

His first act was to dispatch as a vanguard the 3rd Company of Fusiliers of the 10th Infantry Regiment, under Captain Mandarino, to seize and hold at all costs the bridge over the Paraibuna, at the border with Rio de Janeiro, the first vital bottleneck in the road. It was reinforced with MGs and mortars from the Heavy Weapons Company and a fraction of light tanks from the Mech Recon. Mandarino left at 09-10:00, approached in combat order -the enemy was expected to have occupied it by noon- found it unguarded and crossed it at 14:00. Soldiers dug in, MGs and mortars got in position and two platoons plus tanks stayed in the right (Rio) bank with another one in the left.