For 15 years, more or less, pictures of Getulio Vargas hung on the walls of all public buildings, offices and stores in Brazil. The omnipresent portrait of the stocky little leader was the symbol of his "New State." When his dictatorship fell in 1945, the pictures came down.
Last week things were different. In Rio, the Supreme Court, acting in its capacity as the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal, formally proclaimed Vargas victor in last October's presidential election. The official count: Vargas, 3,820,560; Briga-deiro Eduardo Gomes, 2,288,105; Christiano Machado, 1,653,521. From his ranch...