Foreign News: End of a Hero

Brazilian workers mourned a decomposing head and two half-devoured arms—the dubious remains of a national hero.

Manoel Olimpio Meira, called "Jacare" (Alligator) after his natal village, became the modern hero of Brazil's jangadeiros, half-starved "sharecropping" fishermen, last autumn when he and three mates sailed their flimsy jangada (sailing raft) Sao Pedro on a 61-day, 1,650-mile trip to Rio de Janeiro to tell President Vargas the fishermen's troubles. From Getulio Vargas they won full union rights—and pensions. Their story (TIME, Dec. 8) so kindled Cinema Director Orson Welles (Citizen Kane)that he flew Jacare and...

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