BRAZIL: Candidate Vargas?

In Brazilian political patter, Queremistas (we want-ers) are tub-thumpers for President Getulio Vargas. In Rio last week, the Queremistas, with or without presidential encouragement, thumped resoundingly. In Brazil’s Federal District they shouted: “We want Getulio.”

But if Getulio Vargas was about to go back on his announced stand (“I am not a candidate”) and enter the Dec. 2 presidential election, he was telling no one. In 1930, lacking votes, he had launched his “candidacy” with the guns of his Rio Grande do Sul gaúchos. Now, he could probably corner an easy majority in any election, but the fire power was on the other side—that of presidential candidates General Eurico Caspar Dutra and Brigadier General Eduardo Gomes. As long as Vargas was not a candidate, Dutra and Gomes would attack each other. But if Vargas fixed his eye on Term II, the Generals might unite their forces and, by an Army revolt, turn out the President.