BRAZIL: History in the Plotting

Silver-maned ex-Foreign Minister Oswaldo Aranha stirred up the already turbulent presidential election campaign with a story that had Brazil by the ears. Two years ago, related soft-spoken Aranha, General Eurico Caspar Dutra conspired to overthrow President Getulio Vargas. (Current point of the story: Dutra is a candidate for the Presidency in Brazil’s December national election, and Vargas is ostensibly supporting him.) The plot was nipped by Vargas before the coup could be executed, Aranha said.

In Rio, where Candidate Dutra denied all, the newspapers played the story to the hilt. But, editorially, the press took the revelation with a grain of salt. Said the Government-owned A Noite: “Oswaldo Aranha, tired of making history, is now inclined to narrate history, and because of the fire of his temperament and the luxury of his imagination, places himself in the center of the stage.”