Political Earthquake

Already shaking with economic chills and fevers, Brazil floundered last week into its gravest political crisis since the suicide of President Getulio Vargas last year. The sudden exposure of a gamy political deal involving President Joao Cafe Filho brought on two angry Cabinet resignations and the dismaying collapse of the administration's plans for a controlled transfer of presidential power in next October's election.

With Vargas dead and Cafe Filho barred by the constitution from running for President, two new star performers, both of them state governors, have moved" into the center ring of the Brazilian political circus. Both are spellbinding orators and accomplished platform actors, though their styles are notably different. Buoyant Juscelino Kubitschek, 53, veteran governor of Minas Gerais, dresses well and exudes hearty confidence. Sao Paulo's shrewd Janio Quadros, 37, once labeled "the most talented actor in the history of

Brazilian politics," ostentatiously wears shabby clothes and the sorrowful look of a much-kicked dog. Neither man is in the grip of an ideology; what makes both of them run is the attraction of political office with the Presidency at the end of the track. Kubitschek (TIME, Feb. 21) is a hard-running presidential candidate. Quadros (TIME, Nov. 1) is passing up the race this time, but from the sidelines he has greatly improved Kubitschek's prospects.

Brassbound General. Brazil's top military leaders are staunchly opposed to Candidate Kubitschek because he was politically linked with Getulio Vargas. After Kubitschek won the nomination of the Social Democratic Party, headed by Vargas' son-in-law, a coalition of right-and-center party leaders, backed by Cafe Filho and the generals, decided to put up brainy General Juarez Tavora, Cafe Filho's chief military adviser and by reputation a man of brassbound integrity.

The Brazilian constitution requires that state governors who intend to run for President resign at least six months before election day. As the April resignation deadline neared, Janio Quadros passed the word that he was thinking of running. It was highly doubtful whether Quadros really intended to give up the governorship of Brazil's richest state only six months after his election in order to run a long-shot race for the Presidency, but his cold-blooded bluff panicked the leaders of the Tavora alliance. Asked to name his price for staying out, Quadros unblinkingly demanded three federal Cabinet posts and the Bank of Brazil presidency for citizens of Sao Paulo state, plus a whopping federal loan to the state government. The Tavora men talked reluctant President Cafe Filho into signing a written pledge promising Quadros all that he asked.

Confident Candidate. Last week, to the Tavora camp's dismay, the press found out all about the under-the-table deal, reported it in screaming headlines to a scandalized nation. Capable Finance Minister Eugenio Gudin indignantly resigned, and the Minister of Transport and Public Works followed him out. Gudin's departure sent inflation-battered Brazil's cruzeiro sliding downward.

General Tavora protested that he had been innocently unaware of the deal, but Governor Quadros promptly denied that. Warned by his fellow generals to get out of the race, Tavora announced that he had decided not to run. Shattered, the anti-Kubitschek coalition lamely chose a substitute presidential candidate: Etelvino Lins, onetime governor of the state of Pernambuco and leader of a dissident faction of Kubitschek's own party. Meanwhile, Juscelino Kubitschek, having, duly resigned as governor of Minas Gerais, was wearing a big, confident smile.

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