The Road Back

One day last week Humberto Castello Branco wrote a short note and sent it to the president of Brazil's Senate: "Because of my inauguration tomorrow as President of the republic, I have the honor of presenting your excellency this declaration of the worldly goods which I possess." There were seven items: an apartment in Rio worth $5,000, four parcels of stock worth $9,000, "one Aero-Willys automobile, 1961 model" and "a perpetual tomb in the Sao Joao Batista cemetery in Rio de Janeiro." The note was the considered duty of an honest man, and it marked the first time in history that a President of Brazil had ever declared his assets--before, during or after his term of office.

Next day at 3 p.m., all across the huge land, church bells tolled, artillery boomed, factory whistles screamed and horns blared on thousands of buses, trucks and cars. Before the assembled state Governors, national Congressmen and generals in Brasilia's Chamber of Deputies, former General Castello Branco solemnly took the oath of office as his country's 26th President. Said he: "I shall do everything possible to consolidate the ideals of the Brazilian nation when it rose--splendid in courage and decision--to restore democracy and free itself of the frauds and distortions that made it unrecognizable. Let each man carry his stone. Do your duty to your nation, and you will see that Brazil will follow your example."

It was more a soldier's command than a politician's plea. And even Ultima Hora, the country's strident leftist paper, sounded a note of optimism: "If his words were not empty, if the man who pronounced them is really aware of his responsibility before history, there is hope."

Taxes & Land. All week long, Castello Branco received a steady stream of bankers and businessmen, economists and social scientists--all those to whom the deposed Joao Goulart had often refused to listen. Out of the meetings came the broad outline of his program for Brazil. He intends, say his advisers, to encourage foreign investment, overhaul tax collection and increase revenues, limit inflationary bank credit, set up an independent central bank to control the currency presses. The government's wild spending will be cut and its mammoth bureaucracy trimmed to happier size.

Land reform is a primary objective --but not the kind of unthinking reform that destroys large, productive farms, while leaving peasants with little except a few hardscrabble acres. Castello Branco wants to reorganize the graft-ridden state and county land-tax system, put it under federal control, and devise an equitable tax rate in proportion to size and productive capacity. Small farmers will get easier credit and more technical help. Even the country's creaky judicial system will come in for attention; today it can take seven years for a court case to come to trial. "If the measures are coordinated," says one presidential adviser, "we can get quick results without the hardship which violent means might bring on."

Cleaning House. One obvious key to success is how wisely the new government cleans house. Under Goulart, leftist groups were nourished by government corruption. The large Communist labor unions lived off federal doles; Petrobras, the state oil monopoly, spent billions of cruzeiros to bankroll the National Student Union and other extremists of the left. Last week federal "interventors" were in command of most of Brazil's labor unions and state enter prises, including Petrobras. Meanwhile, the arrests and imprisonments by the new government continued with a grim purpose that sent shivers up many Brazilian spines. No one knew how many people were locked up in jail. But the total of those stripped of their political rights climbed to 167, among them Celso Furtado, 43, the leftist but non-Communist boss of the successful development program in Brazil's impoverished Northeast.

At one point there was even talk of cracking down on ex-President Juscelino Kubitschek--on grounds of corruption. ("Juscelino! Juscelino!" cried a group in front of his Rio apartment. Kubitschek came to the window, beaming. "Thief! Thief!" they cried.) In Recife, troops searching for the sister of an imprisoned leftist governor went so far as to invade the palace of Archbishop Dom Helder Camara, Brazil's leading churchman. The angry archbishop telephoned the regional army commander, and a colonel came racing to order the troops away. That same day, Dom Helder and 16 of his bishops joined in issuing a statement urging that "the innocent who were accidentally arrested in the first moments of inevitable confusion be returned to freedom as soon as possible."

Political Voices. At week's end the worst of the purge seemed over. A graver danger to unity was the politicians. After winning the presidency for Castello Branco, the military let the politicians have a say in the Cabinet and vice-presidency. In a week of argument and political infighting, ten of 13 ministers were named; among those to come were the crucial ministers of labor and foreign relations. With their eyes on the 1965 elections, both Guanabara State Governor Carlos Lacerda and Kubitschek were in the thick of the bargaining. A Lacerda man--and a good one--landed the Health Ministry. Kubitschek's prize, voted by Congress without military interference, was a less happy choice. Into Brazil's vice-presidency went Jose Maria Alkmim, 62, an old crony who for 28 ill-starred months served as Kubitschek's Finance Minister, during which time scandals rocked the ministry, the value of the cruzeiro dropped 50%, retail prices soared 60% and the treasury debt to the Bank of Brazil tripled.

But Alkmim will have little to do except preside over the Senate. And President Castello Branco is not the sort to let the politicians talk on forever--not with Brazil's people in uniform squarely behind him. As tough old War Minister Artur da Costa e Silva said, "The time has now come for the army to return to its barracks. But our mission is not over. We will continue our vigilance. President Castello Branco can always count on his soldiers. At his first cry, they will be on their feet."

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