Two years before England’s only victory in the World Cup in 1966, while football fans were distracted by the European Nations Cup hosted by Spain in 1964, the Brazilian army, backed with United States arms, logistics and CIA undercover operatives, staged a murderous military coup to oust the left-wing democratically elected government. 

Don’t expect the inconvenience of a bloody political anniversary to garner much media attention and take the sheen off the forthcoming World Cup festivities 50 years later.

The Kennedy administration prepared the way for the 1964 military coup in Brazil, helping destroy Brazilian democracy which was becoming far too independent from United States business. 

The US supported the coup while its military leaders developed a taste for torture, repression and the use of death squads to terrorise the population. 

A few days after the coup, a CIA official cabled Washington: “The change in government will create a greatly improved climate for foreign investments.”

The coup put an end to the government of Goulart, also known as Jango, a member of the Brazilian Labour Party who had been democratically elected vice-president in the same election that led conservative Janio Quadros to the presidency. 

Quadros resigned in 1961 and according to the constitution Goulart should have automatically replaced Quadros as president. A moderate, Goulart was accused of being a communist by right-wing militants and was unable to take office. 

His basic reforms plan, which aimed at socialising the profits of large companies towards ensuring a better quality of life and greater equality for most Brazilians, was labelled a “socialist threat” by the military and right-wing sectors of the society which organised major demonstrations against the government in the Marches of the Family with God for Freedom (Marchas da Familia com Deus pela Liberdade). 

The coup subjected Brazil to a brutal military regime politically aligned to the interests of the United States. This regime would last until 1985, when Tancredo Neves was elected the first civilian president of Brazil since the 1960 elections.

Twelve months ago world news reported football supporters fleeing rubber bullets, roads into stadiums blocked by angry crowds, mobs throwing stones at Fifa offices, placards being ripped down and burned in the midst of mass protests at the huge sums of money being poured into a vanity project, rife with corruption and huge profits for Fifa, the advertisers and construction companies. 

Citizens living in squalor began to organise mass dissent. The glitz and glamour of the World Cup is becoming too much to bear as millionaire players and lavish corporate hospitality contrasts with poor Brazilian citizens living in the slums of the favellas trying to manage on subsistence levels of income and appalling living conditions where gangsters and drug cartels operate openly.

For the past week riots, protests and violent demonstrations against the World Cup have become an almost daily occurrence as the country’s favourite sport has become the focus of the biggest mass demonstrations in decades. 

The host cities have been the focus of furious demonstrations prompting local authorities to request security reinforcements from the national government. 

Longstanding problems such as corruption, dire public services, high prices and low levels of safety are also prominent among the range of grievances.

But the mega-event has been the lightning conductor. Many protesters are furious that the government is spending 31 billion reals (£9bn) to set the stage for a one-time global tournament while it has failed to address everyday problems closer to home.

Suspicions that the construction companies — a main source of kickbacks for politicians — will be the main beneficiaries of the tournament have grown, particularly in Rio, where the Maracana stadium has been refurbished twice in 10 years at a cost of more than 1bn reals (£295m). 

It was rebuilt with public money but the concession to run it has been offered to a private firm, covering barely a fifth of the costs.

Meanwhile, Fifa has announced record revenues from broadcasting rights and corporate sponsorship for 2014 — none of which will go to Brazil’s public coffers. 

With negative headlines also related to enforced evictions to enable tournament infrastructure to be built on time and poor engineering quality, the World Cup organisers are facing a PR nightmare.

Amnesty International says draft anti-terror legislation currently being rushed through to prepare to crack down on protests during the tournament could worsen the already dire record of Brazil’s police in dealing with public unrest and “puts freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly at risk.”

Joao Tancredo, president of lawyers’ group the Institute of Defenders of Human Rights’ said the law in its current form was a step backwards because it could frame protesters. 

“It’s not healthy for a country that intends to have a just democracy to have laws like this,” he said. 

“You can’t compare a protester to a terrorist. It’s irresponsible. 

“This is something that not even the dictatorship did.”