Jack & Janio

Eleven days after John Kennedy, 43, raised his right hand in snow-chilled Washington, Janio Quadros, 44, ducked his head through Brazil's green-and-yellow sash of presidential office in Brazil's unfinished new capital of Brasilia. The coincidence of age and time obviously struck Quadros. "This month's changes of administration in the United States and Brazil," he said, "give new hope of hemisphere-wide cooperation."

No less striking was the similarity of viewpoint, for Quadros also obviously viewed his job as that of a young man called in to solve a grave national crisis. In his inaugural speech, Brazil's new chief made no bones about his belief that outgoing President Juscelino Kubitschek had brought Brazil to the brink of economic collapse. The nation faced a "terrible financial situation," said Quadros. For all the great dams, roads and factories, Kubitschek's government had run the foreign debt to $3.8 billion, with $600 million due this year. Kubitschek's final budget called for a potential deficit of 108 billion cruzeiros, or $490 million at the rapidly collapsing free rate of exchange.

In his campaign, Candidate Quadros promised all things to all voters, right, left and center. Now Brazilians wondered what tack he would take in the cold war. In foreign affairs, Quadros denounced Communism as "the new imperialism." At the same time, he opened Brazil's arms "without prejudice, to all nations of the new world as well as to the ancient communities of Europe and Asia." The announcement left leeway for the wish--expressed by Quadros during a pre-election trip to Moscow--for relations with Russia that might help dispose of Brazil's 40 million bags of surplus coffee.

Domestically, Quadros promised "to impose the most rigorous government morality." He appeared at the presidential office building at 7:30 a.m. the day after inauguration only to find long lines of offices standing empty. With cold anger he ordered a new ten-hour workday, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a three-hour break. That very evening, homeward-bound functionaries, slipping into buses at 6 p.m., were ordered out and back to work by palace guards. Quadros also ordered an investigation of corruption in five federal agencies--an action that is bound to have a stirring effect on Brazil's politicians of the old spendthrift days.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.