Army tanks, trucks and armored cars rumbled into downtown Rio one afternoon last week; they dutifully halted at red traffic lights, then rolled on to carry out their orders. Some 600 men armed with rifles, bazookas and machine guns surrounded the Presidential Palace. A housewife on her way to market glanced at a cluster of soldiers manning a field gun, then turned to a bystander and asked quite matter-of-factly: "What, another coup?"
It was not another coup, but a sequel to Lieut. General Henrique Teixeira Lott's bloodless "preventive revolution" (TiME, Nov. 21). Last week War Minister Teixeira Lott was again the man in charge, and again his avowed purpose in calling out the troops was to defend the constitution against Brazil's so-called golpistas: the military-civilian faction that favors a golpe (coup) to keep President-elect Ju-scelino Kubitschek and leftist Vice President-elect Joao ("Jango") Goulart from taking office next January. Teixeira Lott reportedly has no burning admiration for Kubitschek, but he considers himself duty bound to see to it that the presidential candidate who won the most votes in October's election is duly inaugurated.
Who Is President? It was a matter of heated debate in Brazil last week just who was the nation's constitutional President.
One claimant was Joao Cafe Filho. who went on sick leave early in November when he suffered a mild heart attack. During his illness he was succeeded, in rapid order, by 1) Chamber of Deputies Speaker Carlos Luz. who was promptly ousted by Teixeira Lott on suspicion of favoring the golpistas, and 2) Senate President Nereu Ramos, no golpista. After Luz meekly accepted his dismissal, Cafe Filho suddenly decided that he felt well enough to take over again. Last week Teixeira Lott called on him at a Rio nursing home, hinted that the army might let him return if he would agree not to make any Cabinet changes. Snapped Cafe Filho: "I am the constitutional President of Brazil. I will not accept or discuss terms." The following day, after his doctors had pronounced him fit. Cafe Filho notified Congress that he was resuming office "as of this date." But by then. Rio was already aswarm with soldiers and policemen acting under Teixeira Lott's orders.
When Cafe Filho. looking gay and nimble, moved back to his apartment near Copacabana Beach that afternoon, army troops and red-capped riot police surrounded the building, keeping him under what amounted to house arrest.
State of Siege. After long and bitter debate, Congress sided with Ramos, declared that "Cafe Filho's previously recognized impediment remains effective until further deliberation by Congress." Cafe Filho then asked the Supreme Court to void Congress' decision. It seemed likely that the court, on constitutional grounds, might have to decide in Cafe Filho's favor. To bar that embarrassment. President Ramos called upon Congress to vote a state of siege, a modified form of martial law that suspends, along with some other rights, the right of recourse to a court injunction against actions of the government. The Chamber argued all night and the Senate argued all the following day, but in the end both houses voted for a 30-day state of siege.