Quadros Quits

Brazil's ever emotional and sometimes erratic President Janio Quadros outdid himself last week. "I have been beaten by forces against me, and so I leave the government," he cried. He resigned the presidency, and flew off back to his native Sao Paulo. He left the president of the Chamber of Deputies, a little-known politician named Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli, to preside as caretaker in his stead.

"All my efforts," said Quadros in a farewell statement, "were in vain to lead this nation in the direction of its true economic and political freedom. I wanted Brazil for Brazilians. I had to face and fight corruption, lies and cowardliness. However, I feel crushed. Terrible forces came forward to fight me and to defame me . . ."

Bickering Prelude. It was a characteristically headlong performance by the 44-year-old politico, who took office seven months ago with the biggest popular majority in Brazilian history. It came after a week of feuding and fussing, touched off--not surprisingly--by the warmth of Quadros' welcome for Cuba's homeward-bound economic czar, Che Guevara. The Cuban did not arrive on schedule. Row on row of officials were left waiting at the Brasilia airport. When Che finally arrived without warning the next day, only a few mechanics were on hand. Quadros later put on his best blue serge to greet him, and give him an ardent reception, along with Brazil's highest award for foreigners, the order of the Cruzeiro do Sul.

The medal was too much. Rio's O Globo complained that "hung on the chest of a false Cuban and authentic Communist, the emblem of Christ's Cross has been completely devalued." Sharper still was the blast from sulphur-tongued Carlos Lacerda, governor of Guanabara state (which includes Rio de Janeiro), whose original election-campaign support for Quadros has since changed to dismay at Quadros' flirtation with Communists ("future hangmen of their fathers, spies of their brothers").

Outside the Door. In a quick reaction, Lacerda rounded up a group of anti-Castro Cubans headed by Manuel Antonio ("Tony") Varona and handed them the keys to Rio. Then, after calling up Quadros and being invited by him to dinner, Lacerda packed an overnight bag and rode an air force jet to Brasilia to carry his protest to the President in person. He found Quadros watching a movie in his private projection room, was offered a sandwich and told to start talking. He had hardly begun before Quadros excused himself and quietly phoned Justice Minister Pedroso Horta. "Call Carlos over to your house and see what he wants," said Quadros to Horta. When Lacerda finished talking to the Justice Minister and returned, he found his overnight bag sitting forlornly outside the presidential palace door. Janio was asleep, said an aide.

From then on it was undeclared war, and Lacerda is a formidable antagonist. He returned to Rio and announced that Justice Minister Horta had invited him to join a Quadros plot to grab more authority for himself by sending Brazil's holdover Congress into permanent recess. As Lacerda's charges began to stir a fuss, Quadros dramatically resigned. It was seven years and a day from the resignation and suicide of Brazilian Strongman Getulio Vargas, another President who had incurred Lacerda's wrath.

Quadros' resignation was impulsive--but not altogether rash. He knew that if critics feared his own flirtation with Communists, they would fear his successor even more. In Singapore, having just led a trade mission to Red China, ambitious Vice President Joao ("Jango") Goulart, 43, a labor-wooing leftist demagogue, hopped a plane for home. Opposed by Quadros but elected (with Communist support) under the Brazilian custom of permitting separate votes for President and Vice President, Goulart automatically would become President of Brazil the moment he touches Brazilian soil.

Once before, early in the presidential campaigning, Quadros dramatically resigned his candidacy in protest over the demands being made by parties supporting him. At that time, the result was a hair-trigger revolt by a few army and air force officers, pleas from across the nation for his return, and Quadros' final surrender to the popular will--after the parties released him from all commitments. The timing and execution of last week's resignation showed similar calculated recklessness. There were a few riotous demonstrations, including the stoning of the U.S. embassy in Rio* by 200 students. Foreign Minister Afonso Arinos urged Congress to "refuse the resignation, or else there will be chaos and civil war." And across Brazil, the pleading began for Quadros to return--presumably on his own terms again. His resignation would not become final until it is published in the official government gazette. But at week's end Quadros said: "I will not turn back. My decision is definite." He plans to travel abroad for three months, he said, "to avoid embarrassing the next President of Brazil. Senhor Goulart."

* Currently between ambassadors; President Kennedy announced the appointment of Harvard Economist (and Brazil Expert) Lincoln Gordon for the post last week.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.