Crisis of the fake letters

[1][2] The scandal that ensued intensified the military's opposition to Bernardes, who went on to win the election in March 1922, but faced the tenentist movement during his government, the beginning of a process of political rupture in the First Brazilian Republic that culminated in the Revolution of 1930.

[2] And continued: “See if Epitácio [Pessoa] shows his vaunted energy, severely punishing these daring ones, arresting those who strayed from discipline and removing these anarchist generals to far away".

Debates in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's Chamber of Deputies and Senate, as well as statements by politicians, military personnel and jurists regarding the authenticity of the letters were prominently publicized in the press.

[5] The letters published by Correio da Manhã were actually forged, as it later turned out, by Pedro Burlamaqui, Oldemar Lacerda and Jacinto Cardoso de Oliveira Guimarães.

Burlamaqui brought the paper to Rio de Janeiro, and Guimarães wrote the content, strictly imitating Artur Bernardes' handwriting.

The public registry office refused recognition of the letters because it found the signatures "disparate", but Correio da Manhã still vehemently insisted on their authenticity.

His opponents, organized in the Republican Reaction bloc, a movement in defense of Nilo Peçanha's candidacy, did not accept the result and sought to intensify the opposition against Bernardes, calling on the military to challenge him.