The Palace Trail

President Getulio Vargas was in trouble. Every new clue to the assassination of an Air Force major and the shooting of Editor Carlos Lacerda (TIME, Aug. 16) seemed to point straight to the presidential palace. First the driver of the getaway cab identified a longtime Vargas bodyguard as one of the gunmen, but the man fled the palace before police could pick him up. Then angry air force officers, who staged their own investigation, seized another gunman and leaked a report that he claimed to have done the deed on order of Luthero Vargas, son of the President and a candidate for re-election to the Chamber of Deputies.

Whether accurate or not, for a few tense days last week the sensational disclosures threatened to topple autocratic old (71) Getulio Vargas from power. Opposition Deputies demanded that Vargas resign. One morning a mob of 2,000 swarmed up the Avenida Rio Branco, shouting: "Down with Vargas," tore down Luthero's campaign posters and overturned and set fire to a campaign car bearing pro-Vargas slogans.

At the first embarrassing clues, wily President Vargas undertook protective maneuvers. He disbanded his personal guard, and replaced his Rio de Janeiro police chief. In addition, Luthero personally went to the air force investigators to answer all their questions. Said Luthero: "I swear before God and the nation that I have not participated in this deplorable crime."

For a time there were even rumors of a military coup. Generals and admirals met in a succession of emergency conferences, and out of the meetings came word that some officers thought it was time to depose Getulio Vargas. But to do that they needed the backing of the army, and to win that they had to convince the army's boss, War Minister General Euclyde Zenobio da Costa. The War Minister vetoed any change. The army, said he, "should guarantee constitutional liberties and Brazil's legally constituted government"--i.e., Vargas should be allowed to serve the remaining 17 months of his term.

The President himself added the punctuation mark: "I am a President elected, and I will serve until the last day of my term." Although the palace still had many embarrassing questions to answer, sage old Getulio Vargas seemed to have weathered another storm.

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