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For a man with no experience in administration or leadership, youthful Dr. Kubitschek made an extraordinarily successful mayor. "It was just as if he grabbed the city physically and gave it a good shaking," a friend recalls. Laid out Washington-style in the 18905, handsome Belo Horizonte (pop. 400,000) had outgrown its plan. During Kubitschek's term as mayor, Belo's water supply and street mileage more than doubled; the paved-sidewalk area and sewer capacity tripled.
Pigs & Pig Iron. Kubitschek took a minor part in 1945 in the founding of the pro-Vargas Social Democratic Party (P.S.D.), an alliance of state political machines, largely controlled by well-to-do businessmen and landowners. In 1950, after a second tour in the federal Chamber of Deputies, he ran for governor of Minas Gerais as the P.S.D. candidate, was elected for a five-year term.
Second among Brazil's 20 states in population (8,000,000), Minas is almost Texan in area—and Mineiros take an almost Texan pride in it. The Portuguese colonizers found the region so rich in minerals that they named it, prosaically, General Mines. In the 18th century, Minas produced a large share of the world's gold and diamonds. Today it produces 99% of Brazil's iron ore, 95% of its manganese and mica. Near the town of Itabira lie the world's biggest known deposits of high-grade iron ore. Minas is Brazil's No. i state in output of corn, cattle and dairy products, No. 2 in pigs and pig iron.
Despite this natural abundance, Minas Gerais was a poorish state in 1950, its industrial growth, as in all of Brazil, sadly hindered by lack of adequate electric power and transportation. In running for governor, Juscelino Kubitschek took "Power and Transportation" as his slogan, promised to build 1,900 miles of new roads and would dou ble the state's electric-power output. By the time Kubitschek resigned last April to run for President, Minas' operating electric-power capacity had soared from 205,000 kilowatts to 450,000, and a little more than 1,900 miles of new roads had been laid down. The rapidly growing state attracted $325 million in new investment capital, and industrial production more than doubled.
Kubitschek had already made up his mind to run for President in the October 1955 election, and hoped to get President Vargas' backing, when Vargas' suicide (in August 1954) threw Brazil's politicos and parties into wild confusion. One result, when emotion quieted, was that Kubitschek managed to corral the P.S.D. presidential nomination, despite the strenuous opposition of the older bosses. That split forced him to reach for the additional backing of the Vargas-created Labor Party (P.T.B.). The price was admittedly high: he had to take demagogic P.T.B. Boss João ("Jango") Goulart as his vice-presidential running mate. Goulart was especially hated by the anti-Vargas military chiefs because of his extreme inflationary policies during a term as federal Minister of Labor. Kubitschek knew that the Goulart alliance increased the risk of military intervention to keep him out of office if he won. But it was a risk to be taken.