Brazil a Nation Mourns

By Janice Castro

More than a million Brazilians waited last week in the streets and plazas of Belo Horizonte, the state capital of Minas Gerais. After a solemn state funeral in Brasilia, Tancredo de Almeida Neves, Brazil's first civilian President-elect in 21 years, was returning in death to the region of his birth. As the red fire truck bearing his coffin moved through the city's center, the huge crowd of mourners seemed suddenly overcome by a mixture of grief and joy at the life and accomplishments of their native son. Waving flags and white handkerchiefs, they followed the coffin, some running, some on motorcycles, others on buses or in cars, horns blaring.

But the hero's welcome took a tragic turn as the crowd converged on the Palacio da Liberdade, where Neves would lie in state. As the pressure against the palace gates increased, the mass of mourners panicked, and in the ensuing stampede at least five people were crushed to death and more than 200 were injured. The confusion at Belo Horizonte was in contrast to the order that had marked the transition of power to the new President, Jose Sarney, who had been Neves' Vice President. Sarney, a personable, well-read politician, is viewed in political circles as a competent administrator who lacks Neves' talent for building a consensus. Indeed, some Brazilians fear that he will be unable to hold the economically troubled country together.

< Holding things together was Neves' forte. A former congressman, senator, governor and Prime Minister, he was known throughout his 50-year political career as a cautious peacemaker, able to navigate among all of Brazil's factions. Chosen President by a coalition of conservatives, liberals and radicals in Brazil's 686-member electoral college, Neves was prevented by an abdominal illness from taking the presidential oath of office on March 15. He finally died at 75 in a Sao Paulo hospital after enduring seven operations in 38 days.

As a mediator, Neves had once before been called upon at a crucial juncture in Brazilian history. In 1961 the country's generals grew restless under a populist President, Joao Goulart. Neves was asked to take the newly created job of Prime Minister, thus diluting Goulart's power. By accepting, he helped preserve civilian rule a little longer. Two years after Neves stepped down in 1962, Goulart was overthrown in a coup. The military ruled until Neves won the presidency last January.

One of twelve children of a small-town merchant, Neves, a lawyer, was an unassuming leader. Paradoxically, that was one of his strengths. An economic conservative with a strong sense of social justice, he was about to become President at a time when Brazil's economic crisis (a $102 billion foreign debt and an annual inflation rate of 230%) required determined action rather than inflammatory rhetoric. Though he never had a chance to confront those problems, he came to represent for 134 million Brazilians--rich and poor, liberal and conservative--the belief that equitable economic solutions could be found.

In a funeral oration as Neves was buried on Wednesday in his hometown of Sao Joao del Rei, 140 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, President Sarney said, "His commitments will be our commitments. His dream will be our dream." The new leader is expected to benefit immediately from the public demand that Neves' legacy be fulfilled. Said Federal Deputy Del Bosco Amaral, a member of Neves' Brazilian Democratic Movement Party: "In a strange way, one of Tancredo's greatest achievements only took place after he died. His death left Brazil with only one path: democracy."

With reporting by John Barham/Belo Horizonte