BRAZIL: Communists in the Army

Since late 1950, when the Rio Military Club's magazine ran some blatantly Communist-line articles attacking U.N. and U.S policy in Korea, Brazilians have wondered uneasily just how far the Reds might have bored into their army. Last month, the Rio newspaper Correio da Manhá reported that the Reds had indeed worked their way into some key places. According to Correio, General Victor César da Cunha, a Communist sympathizer, is now subcommandant of Rio's infantry division, and Colonel Henrique Oeste, a former Communist deputy in Congress, commands the brigade stationed on the Bolivian frontier.

Last week 45 ranking officers, headed by Chief of Staff Alvaro Fiuza de Castro, called to pay holiday respects to War Minister General Newton Estilac Leal. In the exchange of compliments, General Fiuza took occasion to deplore "the sinister infiltrations . . . that are penetrating our armed forces." General Estilac, a leftist who has consistently refrained from getting tough with Communists in the army, answered that "unscrupulous agents of intrigue are trying to foment disunion and mutual distrust with unfounded, unpatriotic accusations impugning the honor of high government officials."

Had Estilac finally gone too far? Three days later, the newspaper 0 Jornal reported that President Vargas was planning a cabinet shakeup, and might replace his War Minister early in the new year with Marshal Mascarenhas de Moraes, commander of Brazilian expeditionary forces in Italy during World War II.