Brazil: The Unmissing Man

Brazil's favorite guessing game for the last four weeks has been "Whither Brizola?" A demagogic leftist Congressman and brother-in-law of deposed President João Goulart, Leonel Brizola had last been seen two days after the revolution, scooting up a Pôrto Alegre street in a green Volkswagen—an angry, rock-throwing crowd chasing him on foot. Then he dropped from sight. Was he hiding out in his home town of Pôrto Alegre? "Impossible," sniffed the Pôrto Alegre military. "We would have captured him." Uruguay? "Impossible," echoed the border patrol. "We have the strictest vigilance."

Brazilians saw him everywhere—and nowhere. In one 24-hour span,...

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