Brazil: State of Chaos

Under Brazil’s constitution, the President can petition Congress to declare a state of siege in the event of “grave internal disturbances or when there is evidence that disturbances are about to erupt.” The words precisely described the chaotic state of affairs in Latin America’s biggest nation last week, and President Joao Goulart made it official. Unable to cope with any of the major crises —and few of the small ones—he asked the Brazilian Congress to proclaim a 30-day state of siege.

The problems were not new. They were just getting worse. Sucked up by a fierce inflationary spiral, the country’s cost of living soared 45% between January and August, while the value of the cruzeiro tumbled 14%. At one point last week, 30 major walkouts were under way or immediately threatened—a streetcar strike in Rio, a railroad strike in Sao Paulo, a bank strike throughout the country.

Goulart is under attack from every side. The labor unions, which brought him to political power, denounce him for resisting impossible wage boosts. Last month loyal army troops put down a flash rebellion of air force and navy noncoms. On the right, the two most powerful state governors, Guanabara’s Carlos Lacerda and Sao Paulo’s Adhemar de Barros, talk about taking matters in their own hands—and point ominously to some 70,000 state troops at their command. Last week Lacerda told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times that he expected total collapse before long. “I don’t think this thing will go to the end of the year,” he said, and warned that further U.S. aid “would be like trying to sell roses in an opium den.”

Coming at a time when a Brazilian mission was in Washington seeking a crucial credit extension, Lacerda’s statement was the final straw so far as Goulart was concerned. His Justice Minister declared the two state governors “in a true state of belligerence with the federal government,” and the President went to Congress. If the Congressmen declare a state of siege, Goulart will assume power to censor the press, ban political meetings, search homes and make arrests without warrants, restrict travel, banish anyone to “any healthful populated area” in Brazil, and seize all state militias.

To many Brazilians that spells dictatorship. Almost everyone seemed against Goulart’s demand for extraordinary powers—the right, the left, the press, state governors and a large section of Congress. Only Goulart and some powerful members of the military were emphatically for it. Said Air Minister Anisio Botelho cryptically: “Either we fall or we stand.”