Brazil Still Ailing

First he underwent two sessions of intestinal surgery. Then internal hemorrhaging set in. Finally last week doctors rushed Brazilian President- elect Tancredo Neves, 75, by jet from the capital of Brasilia to yet another round of surgery in Sao Paulo. After 5 1/2 hours on the operating table, they described his condition as "satisfactory," adding that Neves had contracted an abdominal "hospital infection" that was "being controlled." Neves said little, but gave a thumbs-up sign to his Vice President, Jose Sarney, through a window of the intensive-care unit at Sao Paulo's Heart Institute.

That was not enough, however, to calm a sense of disquiet in Brazilian political circles. Neves fell ill the night before he was scheduled to take the oath of office as Brazil's first civilian President after 21 years of military rule; his Vice President had to be sworn in in his stead. Would Neves ever take power? And what about the health of the government during his prolonged absence?

The questions remained unanswered, but members of Neves' Brazilian Democratic Movement Party realized that their leader's delicate condition was more than a temporary crisis. In the short run, that should not pose a problem. Constitutionally, executive authority is in the hands of Vice President Sarney, the former chairman of the military-backed Democratic Social Party, which ceded power to Neves following his Jan. 15 election by Brazil's 686- member electoral college. Nor was there much concern that the military would grow restless: Army Minister Leonidas Pires Gon(pi202)alves told the press that "the Brazilian army will comply exactly with what is prescribed in the constitution." Political leaders of all persuasions pledged their support to Sarney, and the 548-member Congress kept up business as usual. Said Chamber of Deputies President Ulysses Guimaraes: "The republic is not on holiday, nor is it in recess."

In the longer term, however, there was something to worry about. Neves' mediating skills were crucial in forging the coalition of liberals, conservatives and radicals that assured his presidential victory. Many of them dislike Sarney for his connections with the former military regime. The question: How long can Sarney hold Neves' followers together while the President-elect recuperates? Neves' supporters feel that his recovery could take quite some time. As one of them put it last week, "To govern effectively, he will have to wait until the second half of the year."