Brazil a Nation Mourns

Eulogizing Neves' dream

More than a million Brazilians waited last week in the streets and plazas of Belo Horizonte, the state capital of Minas Gerais. After a solemn state funeral in Brasilia, Tancredo de Almeida Neves, Brazil's first civilian President-elect in 21 years, was returning in death to the region of his birth. As the red fire truck bearing his coffin moved through the city's center, the huge crowd of mourners seemed suddenly overcome by a mixture of grief and joy at the life and accomplishments of their native son. Waving flags and white handkerchiefs, they followed the coffin, some running, some on motorcycles,...

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