But times had changed. Dutra had governed honestly and respected the law. The group that came back into power with Vargas was eager for power, fame, and money. The presidency was surrounded by a morass of corruption. The opposition fought bitterly and violently against Vargas and “Getúlismo.” Carlos Lacerda, editor of the opposition newspaper, “Tribuna da Imprensa,” was his most outspoken opponent and exposed graft and chicanery in government circles, and in Vargas’s own family. (Vargas himself was believed to be honest, but deluded, and increasingly helpless.) Members of Vargas’s bodyguard plotted to assasinate Lacerda. The attempt failed; Lacerda escaped with a bullet in the foot, but a young Air Force Major, who was with Lacerda to protect him from just such an attack, was killed. This political assassination produced a national scandal. Lacerda publicly accused the president of having instigated the crime. (It was later proved, however, that Vargas was ignorant of the whole thing.) The Air Force was determined to find out who was responsible for the death of their comrade; a group of them captured the culprit in the Presidential Palace itself. High-ranking members of the armed forces then demanded the president’s renunciation, in a dramatic scene early in the morning of August 24th, 1954. Vargas apparently agreed; still in pajamas and dressing gown, he retired to his bedroom — and shot himself through the heart.
Happily, with the amazing Brazilian talent for resolving the worst crises peacefully, the country was not thrown into chaos by the president’s suicide. The Vice-President, Café Filho (Coffee, Jr.), took power exactly as if the position had become vacant in a more normal way. (The current joke, of course, was: “What does the butler say when he knocks on the president’s door in the morning?” “Time for coffee.”) At the end of his term there were new elections. The candidate of the old “Getúlista” group was Juscelino Kubitschek, from Minas Gerais; the opposition was a general, Juarez Távora, one of the “young officers” of ’30, who had later turned against Vargas. However, the Vargas machine was still powerful, in spite of the suicide, — or perhaps because of it. (Vargas had been a father-figure to the masses of the poor, particularly in the cities. His funeral in Rio, rather, the procession carrying his coffin through the streets to the airport to be taken back to Rio Grande do Sul, was a frightening and touching display of mass-hysteria.) Kubitschek won by a narrow margin; and since the soldiers and civilians who were for Távora began to question the legality of the election, the “Getulista” generals, with all the means of power at their command, gave “golpe preventivo,” declared the country in a state of siege for days and ensured the inauguration of Kubitschek.
Once in power, Kubitschek proved to be without rancor; he was hyperactive, optimistic, and ambitious. He undertook his great work, the building of the new capital, Brasília. He encouraged industrialization and began the construction of great dams in order to increase the country’s supply of electrical power. But his government, more than any other, was favorable to corruption and graft. All the wealth of the country remained in the hands of a few powerful political and economic groups. Inflation, which had begun to grow in the days of Vargas, now increased at a nightmare rate. The cost of living increased every day; the false prosperity of Kubitschek’s much-vaunted “development” finally was exposed.
There were elections. The official candidate was one of the generals of the “golpe preventivo” that had helped ensure Kubitschek’s taking power, Henrique Lott. The other candidate was the ex-Governor of the State of São Paulo, Jânio Quadros, a young politician (a few months younger than President Kennedy) whose career had been meteoric. From history teacher, he had gone up all the steps of the political ladder — from alderman to presidential candidate — never having finished one term in office. (In Brazil a man cannot run for one office while holding another, so Quadros resigned regularly from each of his offices.)
Quadros was elected by a tremendous majority, the biggest election ever held in Brazil. The people wanted a change, wanted law, wanted austerity, even — to escape from the spiralling inflation and the long years of the Vargas regime and its successor. There was an atmosphere of hope and pride. In the first seven months of his presidency, Quadros appeared to be fulfilling his electoral promises, and already the country felt the effects of his administration.
Known as a difficult and temperamental man, he had already “renounced” once during his candidacy but had become reconciled to the parties backing him.
Brazil was hopeful when Quadros entered office in 1961, and at first all went well. As he had in São Paulo, Quadros ordered investigations into graft, fired superfluous government employees, and began reform and development programs. Congressional leaders became disturbed, however, when Quadros began sounding them out about the possibility of his being granted additional powers. Late in August, Lacerda made the sensational revelation that he had been asked to join a Quadros plot to close down Congress entirely.
On the morning of August 25, Quadros readied a resignation letter that, like the one supposed to have been left by Vargas seven years earlier, claimed devotion to Brazil and hinted at threats from mysterious foreign powers. Debate still rages over whether Quadros actually meant to resign or whether he was merely making a dramatic play for more power. In any case, the resignation was submitted and accepted by Congress. The country was stunned by the news that the president had “renounced” and on the following day he was on his way to England.
The Vice-President was João (“Jango”) Goulart, a protégé of Vargas since the days of Vargas’s exile in the south and head of the labor “syndicates” since the days of Vargas. He was in China at the time of Quadros’s defection and suspected by the military heads of being red. They vetoed his return to take over the presidency, and for a week things were at a standstilclass="underline" would Goulart be president, or wouldn’t he? Rio Grande do Sul, as always, was the war-like state (and its governor was Goulart’s brother-in-law), for its “native son.” It prepared for civil war under the slogans of “Legality,” and “upholding the constitution.” The army officers in the north obviously did not want civil war, but they were afraid of Goulart’s leftist politics. Finally, the crisis was again solved by the “spirit of compromise” (the very expression, like “land of unfulfilled promise,” is almost a red flag to a Brazilian at present). The Congress voted a change to “parlamentarismo,” that is, Goulart would be allowed to take office as president, but his powers would be curbed by having a prime minister — a system copied more or less after that of West Germany. The new cabinet was chosen. (It was immediately called the “bifocal government.”) The country returned to a Parliament, the system responsible for the greatness of the Empire, some say, and, say others, responsible for its fall.
It is still too early to foresee the results of the change.
Chapter 10