Running Things His Way

"Democratic renovation" is what revolutionary President Humberto Castello Branco calls his program for Brazil. To get the job done, in a country plagued by inflation, corruption and ineptitude after years of freewheeling politics, Castello Branco has assumed near-dictatorial powers while maintaining his devotion to constitutional democracy. Inevitably, his efforts have pleased no one --neither the moderates and leftists, who complain about his muffling of politics, nor the military's linha dura (hard line), which scoffs at his loyalty to democracy. In a series of swift . strokes over the past fortnight, Castello Branco struck back--not hard enough to do anyone real damage, but forcefully enough to put the country on notice that he intends to run things his way.

Shut Up. The first stroke went left, when 100 "intellectuals," mostly students and writers, staged a noisy demonstration at the OAS foreign ministers' conference in Rio. Waving banners proclaiming "Down with dictatorship! Up with democracy!", they put on an unpleasant little scene just as Castello Branco drove up to open the conference at the Hotel Gloria. Nine of the leaders were clapped in jail for illegally demonstrating against the government. Last week, the conference over, they were released, and their supporters, who were planning a protest rally, were left with nothing to protest.

A more dangerous challenge came from the hard-line military officers who backed the coup against leftist President Joao Goulart 20 months ago. They took bitter issue with the President's determination to honor the results of the October gubernatorial elections in eleven states--including Guanabara (Rio), where the surprise winner was an old-time politician whom the military has been grilling about Communist ties' Castello Branco reacted by shutting down a far-rightist military group known as LIDER, then bolstered his strength at the First Army's huge base outside Rio by putting one of his most loyal generals in charge. With that, the President cleared the way for the installation of the eleven new governors this week.

Pay Up. Meanwhile, Castello Branco is pursuing other quarry. It has long been a casual tradition among moneyed Brazilians to ignore income taxes or report only a fraction of their true earnings. Last year only 150,000 Brazilians bothered to file returns at all. Last week investigators were probing the 100 biggest evaders, whose declarations have been "out of line with ostensible evidences of wealth." They face jail sentences of up to two years.

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