Brazil's Communists, with a year of legal existence to celebrate, were out to celebrate it in downtown Rio. The Dutra Government, alarmed by mounting strikes and mass demonstrations (TIME, May 27), was just as intent on putting Rio's 150,000 unruly partisans in their place. Rio's police chief, somber José Pereira Lira, ordered them to meet in the remote beachside suburb of Ipanema. The Communists refused, scattered thousands of handbills calling all proletarians to downtown Carioca Square.
TIME Correspondent Donald Newton arrived a half hour early, and took up his stand before a restaurant on the square, the Taverna Carioca. A...
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