Gloomy Time

It was winter last week in Rio. Soggy clouds hid the towering landmarks of Corcovado and Sugar Loaf and spilled chill rain* on the shivering city. The grey Atlantic thundered against the white beaches and heaved flotsam on to seaside drives.

In squat Catete Palace, the mood of sad-eyed President Eurico Gaspar Dutra matched the weather. His popularity is at its lowest ebb. He wants to take his ailing wife, the devout and charitable "Dona Santinha," to the U.S. for treatment, but he dares not leave the country. Brazil is caught in shifting political currents that Rio's conservative Correio da Manha predicts may "lead to chaos."

Imagine Harry Truman governing with the help of the Republicans, while his own Democrats, labor and the Communists intrigue behind his back. That is a rough picture of what is happening in Brazil. Spelled out in personalities, Dutra's problem is a tricky trinity: Vice President Nereu Ramos, who would like to be President; foxy Getulio Vargas, who has been and who would like to have the job again; and Communist Boss Senator Luis Carlos Prestes.

Ramos, chief of Dutra's own P.S.D. (Social Democratic Party), has split off a potent section of the party and thrown that support to Vargas. And Vargas, who as dictator held Prestes in prison for eight grueling years, is, according to Dutra's military aide, engaged in a "conspiracy" with the Communists. Last week, in the Senate, Vargas was charged with "attempting to destroy the democratic structure of the Government." Presumably, both Vargas and Prestes, who do not share a common ideology, feel that they would benefit politically by democratic decay.

Honest Dutra has one ace, and a formidable one. The Army is loyal to him and will remain so as long as he campaigns against the Communists. After successfully disfranchising the party (TIME, May 19), Dutra is now working to oust Communist legislators from office. He has asked the Senate to hand over Prestes for trial on charges of "subverting public order." A purge of Communists and their sympathizers in the Army has begun.

The liberal U.D.N. (National Democratic Union), which normally opposes the Government, recently proposed a general truce in the interest of national unity. Ramos refused. Said sage old General Pedro Aurelio Goes Monteiro, Army strong man: "We are going through lands that are hard to cultivate."

* A cold front moving up from Antarctica brought rare snowfalls to the mountains of Southern Brazil, some damage to coffee crops and five deaths by freezing in Curitiba, Parana state capital.

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