The Way Back

A pleased grin creasing his tanned Gaucho's face. Jo`ao ("Jango") Goulart stood before a joint session of Brazil's Congress one evening last week to be inaugurated as President of Brazil. By compromise and adroit political maneuvering, the man considered a demagogue and dangerous leftist by Brazil's conservative military brass was finally installed as the nation's chief executive. His legal powers were sharply limited under a constitutional amendment changing the government from a presidential to a parliamentary system. How much actual power he might wield depended on how well he got on with his Prime Minister and with Brazil's fractious, many-partied Congress.

From the start, opportunist Jango Goulart showed that he understood the realities--and the possibilities--of his situation. No one knew better than he that if he made an overt grab for full power, a civil war would result in which he could only lose. In all the fog surrounding Janio Quadros' resignation, the one certainty emerging is that Quadros never intended his Vice President Goulart to rule (presumably he thought the prospect so alarming that he would be called back). Before he resigned, Quadros summoned his three armed forces ministers and brusquely told them: "With this Congress, I cannot govern. Organize a military junta and run the country." But the military faltered in the face of the public's rallying to constitutional methods, even if it meant bringing Goulart to power. Goulart suddenly found himself in a position to maneuver.

Half a Loaf. With a private army at his back of tough Gauchos from his own state of Rio Grande do Sul, Jango laid proper claim to the Presidency. In doing so, he had the backing of nearly every civilian leader in Brazil, whatever their misgivings. The solution was the inauguration of Goulart as President, but under a new constitutional amendment making him a figurehead in a parliamentary system controlled by a Prime Minister.

Acting like a man who believes half a loaf is better than none. Goulart gave his agreement, insisting only that the amendment be presented to Brazilians in a referendum. Said one Congressman: "Congress has done all it can. Now it is up to the military."

As it turned out. the only obstacle to Goulart's installation was a portion of Brazil's air force. Though all the service chiefs agreed to go along, the air force men in Brasilia still threatened to shoot Goulart down if he attempted to fly from his Porto Alegre stronghold to the capital. The revolt lasted only a few hours, and then Acting President Pascoal Mazzilli phoned Goulart that the way was clear. "I'll be ready to take off by noon," said Jango.

Despite his quick promise, the careful Goulart took no chances. He waited until dusk before boarding a Varig Airlines Caravelle jet. At 8:15 p.m., the lights of Brasilia shone below, and the plane was blacked out. At the last possible moment, the Caravelle pilot flipped on his landing lights, the plane touched down, and President Goulart was safely in the capital.

"I Will Choose." Within minutes. Goulart was deeply involved in the political talk that he calculated would give him more than a figurehead's voice in the affairs of government. Retaining the right to choose his own Prime Minister, Goulart made full use of it. "I and nobody else will choose the Prime Minister," he told congressional leaders, and proceeded to haggle until they finally agreed on a man acceptable to both sides. The choice: Tancredo Neves, 51, a conservative businessman from Minas Gerais, who was Justice Minister under President Getulio Vargas in 1954 and was now serving a quiet term as a federal Deputy. Politically, he had the value of belonging to ex-President Juscelino Kubitschek's Social Democratic Party (P.S.D.), which holds the largest block of seats in Brazil's Congress. Temperamentally, he was the sort that Goulart, himself a political heir to flamboyant old Dictator Vargas, thought he could get along with.

Even then, some leaders of Tancredo Neves' own party protested. But Goulart wore them down in long hours of argument. Said Goulart. assuming the role of statesmanlike compromiser: "The political parties know, the Congressmen know, everybody knows that I incline more to unite than to divide. I prefer to pacify than to arouse hate. I prefer to harmonize than to stimulate resentments.'' And he added: "I can smell the people and I smell of the people. I assume the presidency with the responsibility of a man who understands reality."

Eminent Respectability. The Cabinet list that Goulart and Neves produced was certainly respectable. To tackle the economic chaos left behind by Kubitschek's inflation and Quadros' panic, they named as Finance Minister Walther Moreira Salles, a banker who twice served ably as Ambassador to the U.S. and has helped negotiate well over $1 billion worth of U.S. credits. As Foreign Minister, Neves named San Tiago Dantas. an expert in international law chosen by Quadros to represent Brazil at this month's U.N. General Assembly session. Congress accepted the entire Cabinet package, 246-10.

If and when Goulart's supply of sweet reason runs low, he can resort to the still powerful leverage left him by the constitutional amendment. He can veto bills passed by any majority less than 60% in Congress, and he can influence Congress itself through the members of his own Labor Party, which holds 70 of the 342 seats. Those 70 votes, added to the 116 of Neves' Social Democratic Party, give the new Prime Minister a bare majority. But if Goulart swings off into leftfield, his precarious majority may well vanish.

Prime Minister Neves is keenly aware of how perilous may be his survival when either an aroused President Goulart or a rebellious Congress may do him in. Sipping a Scotch, he assessed the parlous prospect before him. "I hope," he said, "to last a month at least."

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