Brazil: Victory for Goulart

• Share

From the sun-soaked beaches of Copacabana to the rain-drenched upper reaches of the Amazon, more than 10 million Brazilians went to the polls to vote on how powerful the country's presidency should be. In September 1961, after Jânio Quadros' petulant resignation and flight, Brazil's conservatives had imposed a power-splitting parliamentary system as a condition for accepting Quadros' successor, Vice President Joao ("Jango") Goulart, whom they feared as a dangerous demagogue and leftist. Last week by a 5-to-1 margin, Brazilians rendered a vote of no confidence in the parliamentary system and ordered a return to a strong presidency.

Clear to All. Goulart campaigned against parliamentary government from the moment he took office, and did not knock himself out trying to make the system work. Responsibility for running the country was transferred to Congress, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister. But congressional leaders engaged in endless political bickering, while Brazil's inflation, already severe, grew worse. Prime Minister followed Prime Minister and new U.S. investment, frightened by the instability, dropped from $266 million in 1961 to $62 million last year. Not until last September, when they were thoroughly frightened by threats of a pro-Goulart military coup, did the Congressmen reluctantly agree to the plebiscite that Goulart wanted.

A few days before the balloting Goulart was so convinced that he would win that he described his plans for the future, once power was his, to TIME Correspondent John Blashill. In need of a shave, with his tie loosened, Goulart talked aboard his government-provided Viscount as he flew from Rio to Brasilia.

"Brazil can be the anti-Cuba, the democratic example of economic emancipation for Latin America to follow," he said. "If Brazil, with its enormous resources and its growing industry, can't do it, no other Latin American country can." Admittedly, continued Goulart, "it is very hard to carry out an economic program during a great political crisis." But a three-year economic plan had been drawn up for him, and it was, he said, "neither revolutionary nor Marxist. It gives great incentive to free enterprise—and great responsibilities."

Vargas & the Workers. Such moderate talk sounded odd from a man. now 44, who learned his politics at the feet of Getulio Vargas, Brazil's master demagogue. In the middle 19405, Goulart marked himself as a man to watch in the Brazilian Labor Party. As Vargas' Labor Minister in 1953, Goulart spent his time approving one wage boost after another. Finally, when he proposed a 100% wage hike for all workers, conservatives complained so strongly that Vargas fired him.

But by then Goulart was strong enough to go it alone.

In the 1955 elections he won more votes for the vice-presidency than Juscelino Kubitschek won for the presidency (Brazilians vote separately for President and Vice President). Once again Goulart was given control of the crowd-pleasing ministries—Labor and Agriculture. In the 1960 election campaign, arguing for the nationalization of power companies, foreign banks and meat-packing houses, he won the vice-presidency for a second time.