Leader Wanted

At the end of a discreetly silent six-month cruise around the world, enigmatic ex-President Janio Quadros this week returns to Brazil, and to an Ash Wednesday welcome that well in advance was being built to heroic proportions. Some 6,000 workers from Rio de Janeiro were bound for the port of Santos to greet his ship. Bus caravans from all over Brazil are scheduled to take thousands more to cheer the prodigal's return.

Power-Stripped President. Homecoming as a hero contrasts sharply with Quadros' bewildering and unheroic abdication last August. In the crisis that followed. Brazil's military forced a switch from a presidential to a parliamentary system, designed to block rabble-rousing Veep Joao ("Jango") Goulart from gaining full executive power as President. But the result has been aimless drift and a leadership vacuum, under the Tweedledum-Tweedledee administration of power-stripped President Goulart and a dreamy Prime Minister named Tancredo Neves. As Quadros neared home, the danger of a Quadros power grab finally stirred Quadros' predecessor, President Juscelino Kubitschek, to speak out.

Kubitschek made plain his immediate objective: a plebiscite to restore the presidential system. He obviously hopes to succeed Goulart in the restrengthened presidency in 1966. In a television interview, Kubitschek explained his reasons: "Brazil can no longer remain without a command. The President gives the orders 33% of the time, the Prime Minister 33%, and the Cabinet Ministers 33%. Either we carry out the plebiscite or we will march toward a new crisis.'' In the U.S. last week for a month-long lecture tour. Kubitschek warned: ''This split of power might push the country into revolution.''

Rising Demagogues. Anarchy is every where evident. Congressmen avoid the isolated new capital of Brasilia (built by free-spending Kubitschek to encourage development of Brazil's interior). Not a single major law has been passed since before Christmas--even though important land--and tax-reform bills are pending. Economists gloomily predict that inflation will raise the cost of living 60% this year.

The lack of national leadership has led to the rise of regional demagogues, who have grabbed headlines for personal political gain. Leading the parade is Leftist Governor Leonel Brizola of Rio Grande do Sul state, a brother-in-law of Goulart, who in January began inciting peasants to occupy privately owned plantations. Last month Brizola stirred an international storm (and sorely embarrassed Goulart, who is to visit the U.S. next month to ask for $589,200,000 in Alliance for Progress aid) with his seizure of the International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. subsidiary in his state. Cynically, Brizola is offering I.T. & T. a ridiculously low $470,937; the company says its holdings are worth $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. Although Goulart tried to persuade Brizola to negotiate a settlement, Brizola balked, left the dispute to languish in the courts, and then added to Goulart's headaches by saying that he has "distrusted the Alliance for Progress from the very beginning." Now he is threatening to confiscate other U.S. enterprises in Rio Grande do Sul.

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