Brazil: Crossing Out the Ex

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"The President of the Republic, under the authority bestowed upon him by Article 10 of the Institutional Act, resolves to cancel the legislative mandate and suspend for ten years the political rights of Senhor Juscelino Ku-bitschek de Oliveira." With that terse statement, the new government of Brazil last week ostracized the country's former President on grounds of corruption and Communist-coddling. The government accused Kubitschek of a wide variety of offenses—land manipulations, accepting kickbacks from contractors, making deals with the Reds for political support. So long as the suspension stands, Kubitschek may not run for President or any other office, hold a government job, or even vote.

Within an hour of the announcement, hundreds of people jammed the street outside Kubitschek's beach-front apartment in Rio. "He'll return! He'll return!" they chanted. In Kubitschek's apartment, supporters hoisted the ex-President to their shoulders and carried him to the window. Fans and foes alike rallied to Kubitschek's side. "Abusive, monstrous and violent measure," said Heraclito Sobral Pinto, president of the Brazilian Bar Association and longtime critic of Kubitschek. "The real loser," said Archbishop Dom Helder Camara, "was not Kubitschek but Brazil."

Kubitschek's PSD party immediately withdrew its support from the government majority bloc in Congress, reducing the bloc to a minority with only one-third of the votes. The government's extreme action also drove the PSD back into its old alliance with the Labor Party of deposed President Joao Goulart. Through it all, the revolutionary government of Humberto Castello Branco stood its ground, stolidly went ahead with still another "purge" list that may run to 500 names.