A Year After

The Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia was nearly deserted when Justice Minister Milton Campos walked briskly up to the speaker's platform. Brazilian Congressmen rarely listen to speeches with more than half an ear, much less to a routine government spiel. It was far from that. "The government," announced Campos, "wants elections. It wants them clean, authentic, democratic, and it will promote them with full guarantees of liberty."

Firm Purpose. The elections will be for the governors of eleven states, and are scheduled for next October. Until last week, most Brazilians expected Humberto Castello Branco's revolutionary government to postpone them for at least a year. Now the decision was to proceed--and it spoke well for his promise to hold a full presidential election in 1966.

Coming on the eve of the first anniversary of the military revolt that toppled Leftist Joao Goulart, the call to vote was one more indication of the firm purpose of Castello Branco's government. Brazil's soldiers ousted Goulart not just to rescue the country from Communism but also to impose a semblance of order on its chaotic political and economic life. In the twelve months since, a calmer, somewhat chastened Congress has passed more than 200 new laws and constitutional amendments. Among them: agrarian reform, a complete income-tax overhaul, and a law revamping the banking system. The national budget has been cut by 30%. The cruzeiro currency, once skyrocketing toward its namesake Southern Cross, has started to level off, and the cost-of-living increase, Brazil's chronic bugaboo, has declined by 19% in the past year. The U.S. has put up $450 million in aid, while other lenders have chipped in another $300 million.

Stirring Opposition. Despite the progress, many Brazilians are less than enthusiastic about Castello Branco. Partly it is the man. Grim and aloof, he carries out his duties with no fuss, no fanfare--and little apparent relish. Critics charge that he is the prisoner of a military clique that uses anti-Communism as an excuse to run roughshod over the country's laws. Some local military commanders are still arresting suspected subversives and holding them without bringing specific charges. Last week an estimated 1,500 "suspects" remained locked away, including Miguel Arraes, ex-governor of Pernambuco, who has yet to be formally indicted.

The Brazilian consumer is also complaining--about rising prices and higher taxes. Meantime, the fight against inflation has so reduced the supply of money and credit that a recession has hit many industries. Some 50,000 workers have been laid off in the Sao Paulo area alone this year. Willys-Overland do Brasil shut down production, has inventory enough to last six months without making another Aero-Willys.

Such rumbles are expectable, considering the hard, unfamiliar course that Castello Branco is charting for Brazil. What some Brazilians forget is that their lot was far worse under Goulart. The question now is whether Castello Branco can make his reforms stick, and the second year will be the test of that.

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