Camouflaging the Braid

Depite deep misgivings, Brazil's military regime was planning to restore a measure of civilian government this week. It would have been the first relaxation of the harsh measures imposed last December, when the constitution was scrapped, Congress closed and a sweeping purge launched against critics of the military. Last week, the prospect of even a limited return to civilian rule abruptly vanished. President Arthur da Costa e Silva, 66, suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed on his right side and unable to speak. Physicians said his prognosis was "fairly good," meaning that in time he may recover partially. But his hopes of announcing on Sept. 7, Brazil's Independence Day, a revised constitution and reopening Congress had been dashed.

In Costa's place arrived a triumvirate of military service chiefs, who announced their intention to rule "until the President has recovered."

The chiefs were three of the President's strongest supporters -- Army General Aurelio de Lyra Tavares, Air Marshal Marcia de Souza e Mello and Navy Admiral Augusto Hamann Ra-demaker Grunewald. It was they who had backed the old army marshal last December, when he suspended civilian rule. Moving smoothly and unhesitatingly, the triumvirate declared a "state of alert," temporarily closed down banks and blithely brushed aside Vice President Pedro Aleixo, a civilian lawyer who would normally have replaced an incapacitated President.

Shuck the Braid. The triumvirate was careful to maintain a low political profile. Taking power, they shucked their gold braid in favor of business suits. Foreign Minister Magalhaes Pinto announced that they were governing "with the approval of the President," and added that "this is not a junta."

How long the non-junta will be content to play a caretaker role will depend not only on Costa e Silva's progress but also on the ambitions of its members. They vary considerably. Rademaker, 64, is a rigid right-winger who had helped lead the military's 1964 coup against left-leaning President Joao Goulart, but has done little political maneuvering since. Technically, he is the senior man in the group, but he ranks an easy third in power and ambition. Souza, 63, is a hard-core rightist who is not likely to play a major political role. Lyra Tavares, 63, is the strongest, has the best political sense and is the most widely admired of the three. He came up through the engineers corps --traditionally the army's "intellectual" branch--and has degrees in both law and engineering. He does not now appear to be pressing for leadership, but that could be a wise ploy rather than an indication of his ultimate goal. Were he to emerge too early as an aspirant to the presidency, he might not survive in Brazil's military-political jungle.

The prospects are that the triumvirate will quietly scrap Costa's plan for a revised constitution and a civilian Congress. For the present, Lyra Tavares can be expected to pursue Costa e Silva's role as a "moderator" in fending off the Young Turk officers who want the military to clamp an even firmer grip on the country. That is a task that may grow more difficult now that the original moderator has been muted.

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