Brazil: Link of Violence

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"There is no national problem," says President Arthur Costa e Silva, "that is not linked indissolubly to education." Last week Costa received unwanted backing for that view. In the most violent wave of demonstrations since the army seized power in 1964, Brazil's high school and university students went on an angry rampage throughout most of the country. In Rio de Janeiro, thousands of students boiled through downtown streets, chanting antigovernment slogans and taunting police. By midweek, the demonstrations had spread to nearly all of the country's 22 states. Schools and universities were closed down, and the army virtually imposed martial law. Troops waded into mobs with tear gas, clubs and bullets, killing four people. In Rio de Janeiro, machine guns were set up at major intersections. Tanks clattered up in front of the armed forces ministry, and air force planes circled the city.

The outbreak was triggered at a routine student demonstration two weeks ago near a branch of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Marching in protest against the food served at the university cafeteria, students began throwing insults and then rocks at the police who had been called to the scene. Suddenly, the police started swinging their clubs and shooting. In the melee that followed, a bullet killed Edson Lima Souto, 18. Almost instantly he became a martyr, and the next day 20,000 persons marched with his body to the city's Sao Joao Batista Cemetery. Last week 16 special memorial Masses for Lima were held around the city. At the biggest service, saber-swinging horse guards rode right up onto the steps of Candalaria Church, galloping into the midst of startled students and bystanders as they left the service, forcing them to flee in every direction.

Though Lima's death detonated the violence, the underlying causes went much deeper. They centered on rising student impatience with Costa's failure to deliver on his inaugural promises of a year ago and ease Brazil's staggering problems of education. Despite assurances that he would "multiply the opportunities of education for all," the country's 41 universities remain rundown, ill-equipped and grossly understaffed; for lack of space, two qualified university applicants must be turned away for every one accepted. Costa is also spending only 7.7% of the national budget on education v. 21% on the armed forces. Though order appeared to be restored at week's end, the students' basic gripes remained, creating a permanent potential for even more violence and trouble.