Brazil's Morning After

...Cardoso portrays his opponent as a deranged, out-of-touch old man...

...In the case of economic policy, Sarney has stepped in to initiatea strong new approach: Late in August he fired Finance Minister Francisco Dornelles, a conservative favoring tighl-monev and budget-cutting measures...

...In a statement distributed to the Armed Forces he lauded members of the military who had "acted patriotically against subversives and terrorists," a phrase widely interpreted as an endorsement of past repression and torture...

...For conflicts concerning economic matters, not to mention the roles of Congress and the Armed Forces, have brought home the message that popular rule, potentially glorious as it may be, is frequently acomplexand messy business...

...Regional rivalries partially explain the PFL's res-tiveness, too: Theousted Dornelles hails from the central Brazilian state of Mi-nas Gerais, where the governor complained about the loss of a major ministry and condemned thegrantingof more influence to Sao Paulo, a financial and industrial giant already well represented in the corridors of power...

...Quadros has attracted support from the Right-leaning Democratic Socialist Party and thePFL, but his own Brazilian Workers Party is small...

...On the other hand, it may irreparably antagonize important constituencies—the IMF, congressional leaders, the military—that the government needs to cultivate in pursuing key programs like land reform, the extension of services to less developed regions, and constitutional reform...

...Moreover, judging from the campaign already being waged for the November municipal elections, the level of political discourse is sadly deteriorating...

...The PMDB standard bearer is Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a sociology professor backed by the Communist parties, too, although that will avail him little...

...He reportedly also wants to take a "harder line" in future negotiations with creditors regarding Brazil's $ 100 billion debt...

...He must somehow nudge the local campaigns this fall toward issues of real importance and away from political tricks and hyperbole...

...Thai Amnesty Law, part of I he series o f liberalizing measures conccded in (he late '70s, pardoned the crimes o f bot h t he opponents and t he o f-I'icials of the military regime...

...In addition, the political parties that form his core of support in the national Congress, notably IheCenter-Left Party of the Democratic Brazilian Movement (PMDB) and the more conservative Liberal Front Party (PFL), will face off in municipal elections this November in over 200 cities and towns...

...Ignoring questions of substance, the two men have allowed their race to degenerate into a contest of personalities and personal attacks...

...is at present a Rotary Internationa...

...Before the controversy provoked by the new economic slant, an unexpected war between Congress and the Brazilian press suddenly grabbed headlines and occupied considerable legislative time and energy...

...In 1987, it will be submitted to a constitutional convention scheduled to be elected next fall...

...Early in September, the newspapers printed large photographs of a traveling circus that had planted its tent neat the congressional buildings in Brasilia...

...Before the August figure was announced, Sarney sent Dornelles packing and brought in Dilson Funaro...

...The press also criticized secret interparty agreements to load up the public sector with thousands of patronage appointments...

...Nonetheless, the beginnings of unbridled debate about the Armed Forces and the "national security doctrines" they still hold to be valid—especially their conviction that they remain the protectors against internal no less than external threats— could create serious antagonism between the military men and the politicians who succeeded them...

...and attempting to avoid a new bout of inflation by resorting to more thorough price controls, perhaps akin to those included in Argentine President Raul Alfonsin's recently administered "shock treatment...

...He quit after just six months as chief executive, in the middle of a political crisis that eventually led to the succession of Left-wing President Joao Goulart and the subsequent coup...

...He must persuade the public to take a serious interest in the drafting of the new constitution, which is expected to set the date of the next Presidential election, probably for 1988 (some want to set it earlier by act of Congress...

...Perhaps public expectations simply had been too high...

...Minister of the Army Leonidas Pires Goncalves sharply disagreed...

...in August...

...Sarney's move on the economic front has won the applause of the PMDB but irked the PFL, illustrating the deep rift underlying the Democratic Alliance they formed to elect Tancredo...

...To date the Finance Ministry has struggled to keep prices in check through "gentlemen's agreements" with merchants, but Funaro himself is known to favor specific controls...

...Shot from an angle that made it appear the circus was an appendage of Congress, the photos carried pointedly sarcastic captions...

...A four-month extension of old agreements, worked out by Dornelles before his fall, though, has relieved the pressure in this area for the time being...

...Mendes protested in an open letter to the President, arguing that men of this kind should be removed from public service...

...Then there was the case of Bete Men-des, a Leftist congresswoman...

...Should the Armed Forces pressure Sarney to silence or limit the debate, public opinion might demand that he respect the principles of free speech, and the outcome of such a clash is anybody's guess...

...Tancredo Neves, the revered President-elect, whounderwent an intestinal operation prior to his scheduled inauguration and died April 21 without ever taking office, built astrong base of support around the theme of a return to democracy...

...Accompanying Sarney on an official trip to Uruguay, she found to her consternation that an Army major who helped torture her in 1970, during her days as a student radical, was now military adjutant to Brazil's Embassy in Montevideo...

...The enthusiasm that marked the end of two decades under military regimes gave Vice President Jose Sarney, Tancredo's successor, a badly needed honeymoon period (see "Debt and Democracy in Brazil," NL, June 3-17) that enabled him to organize his Cabinet...

...But the honeymoon isover, and although Sarney remains popular, after a promising start his team has revealed itself to be a mishmash of con-lending factions and cliques capable of little agreement on policy...

...A report found that the Federal treasury had improperly released contraband goods—including tape players, hundreds of bottles of imported whiskey, and pornographic videotapes—to the elite Superior War College...

...His appointment is a triumph for the "developmentalist" school of economics, whose chief representative in the government had previously been Planning Minister Joao Sayad, Dornelles' archrival...

...To boot, an unusual hint of military corruption emerged...

...In press conferences and formal statements, Funaro and his chosen deputies have declared that they will be trying to both induce growth and fight inflation...

...Indeed, they have triggered an unprecedented discussion of its proper function today—given that there are several ministers from the ArmedForcesinSarney's government—and even of possible punishment for theexcessesof the 1960s and '70s...

...Dornelles' schemes hinged on reducing inflation—and the rate did indeed drop dramatically in June and July, then almost doubled to a record high of 14 per cent a month Brian 1 . Zimbifr, a previous contributor to the NL...

...After Congress merely reprimanded the offenders, the national press let loose a storm of criticism...

...Their three-pronged strategy calls for gradually easing monetary policy in order to lower interest rates...

...The Armed Forces' continuing influence on the Nova Republica has provoked increasing congressional criticism, firing up military tempers and further rendering rational discussion of vital issues virtually impossible...

...A Sao Paulo businessman, Funaro has a reputation for Left-of-Center ideas and winning against the odds—the latter enhanced by an apparently complete recovery from the lymph cancer that besieged him in 1981...

...Sarney's best hope is a solid sweep by the PMDB's candidates come November, because the party's victory would be interpreted as a vote of confidence in him and in his government's thrust...

...Among the incidents sparking this convulsion was a speech by the intelligence chief, General Euclydes Figueiredo, attacking the " false democrats" of the newly legalized—and so far insignificant—traditional Brazilian Communist Party and its Maoist rival, the Communist Party of Brazil...

...tinkering with the indexing system and exchange policies in hopes of easing inflationary burdens on low-income groups...

...In these circumstances, Sarney has his work cut out for him if he hopes to govern effectively...

...The country is not likely to resort to the public trials under way at present elsewhere in Latin America—first, because there were fewer cases of abduction and torture in Brazil than in some neighboring nations, and second, because of a 1979 act passed during the term of the previous President, General Joao Figueiredo...

...Quadros claims Cardoso is the candidate of the Communists...

...This grew in intensity as closer scrutiny of the deputies' behavior revealed widespread absenteeism, despite the fact that they receive a special payment for each session held whether or not they show up...

...The mayoral race in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city and a barometer of nationwide political trends, illustrates the situation...

...Its plot involves a near-mythical figure whose return to a small town in the interior forces the townspeople lo reevaluate the hopes and illusions they have built around him...

...Some here see the climate of contentiousness that has rather suddenly overtaken the country as a healthy sign of a growing attachment to liberty, particularly in a society that had been deprived of open expression...

...They are now feuding openly about everything from the economy to the constitution currently being drafted by experts...

...Finally, he must forestall the attempts of a few major prospective rivals—such as Energy Minister Aureliano Chaves, Rio de Janeiro Governor Leonel Brizola, Congressional President Ulysses Guimaraes, and Sao Paulo Governor Franco Montoro—to start the presidential campaign soon after the municipal contests, whatever the actual date selected for the balloting...

...Front-page photos showed them pushing the voting buttons on absent colleagues' desks as well as their own, a practice known hereas "pianoplaying...

...Outraged legislative leaders responded by planning a two-day campaign of speeches and television appearances to counter what they alleged was an "orchestrated attack" on their dignity...

...Ironically, the story line resembles the saga of Brazil's civilian government, which look power from the military last March amid much fanfare about the joys of democracy...

...These separate events have made Brazilians more willing to articulate the widespread belief that the military acted irresponsibly in the course of its 20-year rule following the 1964 coup...

...At the same time, new questions about the Armed Forces inflamed public opinion, salting old wounds and making it harder for Sarney and his policymakers to build a consensus...

...That agenda, pleasing to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and orthodox economists, did little to take recession-plagued Brazil out of thedoldrums...

...This would be more distracting and divisive than the local races have been, and would make it virtually impossible to address, let alone resolve, Brazil's pressing social and economic problems...

...The imbroglio actually began back in July, when the prominent daily Jornal do Brasil caught seven congressmen cheating in a vote on political reform...

...One of the candidates is former President Janio Quadros, a Right-wing populist whose bizarre resignation in 1961 has never been adequately explained...

...scholar studying Brazilian polities in Ric th Ja/n:<o...

...Otherwise, all the unrestrained politicking and controversies that have surfaced may not only frustrate the President's efforts to shore up his regime but threaten the future of democracy in Brazil...

...Funaro has long been identified with the PMDB, of course, while Dornelles' policies were closer to those of the PFL...