Brazil: Democracy on the Shelf

After the 1964 revolution that installed him in power, Brazilian President Humberto Castello Branco ruled the country with a pragmatic blend of democracy and dictatorial decrees. As time went on, the element of democracy became smaller and smaller. Last week, what little remained was at least temporarily shelved. In his “Complementary Act 23,” Castello Branco closed Congress until Nov. 22, seven days after the upcoming congressional elections.

Six Too Many. Thus ended a long, sometimes bitter tug-of-war that began 31 months ago, when Castello Branco declared war on corruption, graft and “anti-revolutionaries.” Too often for congressional comfort, that label came to include legislators themselves, who found their mandates canceled. Not until last year did Congress finally stand up to the President; in a rare show of unity, it refused to vote Castello Branco sweeping new powers—including the right to close down Congress. So Castello Branco simply put the rules into effect by decree, and for good measure dissolved Brazil’s 13 political parties; in their place, he created a majority government party called ARENA and a mild opposition catchall called M.D.B. Early this month, in an indirect election by Congress, ARENA’S presidential candidate—ex-War Minister, Marshal Artur da Costa e Silva, 64—swept easily to victory, and is to take office next March. With that accomplished, Castello Branco fortnight ago felt secure enough to draw up another decree and order out of Congress six morefederal Deputies whom he does not like.

That was six too many. “After two years and in the middle of an election campaign,” stormed M.D.B. President Franco Montoro, “this measure shrieks to the heavens.” Even Adauto Cardoso, president of the Chamber of Deputies and a key ARENA leader, registered his hot protest. “Only after consulting the directors of the House and the vote of the majority of the Deputies,” Cardoso announced, “will I feel authorized to declare the extinction of the mandates.” Congressional leaders promptly summoned Deputies back to Brasilia for a vote. Angrily, Castello Branco in effect ordered ARENA members to stay just where they were. “The cancellations are made and cannot be discussed by any power,” he snapped emphatically. “They are being carried out.”

Hymn to Battle. By early last week, 73 Deputies were back in Brasilia, and since all but three of them were members of M.D.B., the vote went overwhelmingly against the government. With that, the Deputies began their preparations for a siege, which soon took on the overtones of a carnival. They set up cots, organized a “resistance command” to guard the doors, considered registering a protest with the U.N., even started tinkering with a patriotic hymn.

They knew what was coming. Back in Rio’s Laranjeiras Palace, Castello Branco was already making plans to override their veto. After a round of talks with his generals, he decreed Congress closed and ordered troops into Brasilia. By the hundreds, they swarmed into the capital’s radio stations and newspaper plants, cut off telephone and cable circuits to the rest of the country, raised a wall of bayonets around the airport and the sleekly modern saucers of steel and glass that house Congress. The Deputies saw the futility of fighting on, and quietly cleared out of the building as ordered.