Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0049/00490.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 18KB | 312 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00490}
$Pretitle{220}
$Title{Brazil
Chapter 1G.   President Emilio Garrastazu Medici}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Jan Knippers Black}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{brazil
government
military
political
geisel
medici
percent
president
brazilian
de}
$Date{1982}
$Log{}
Country:     Brazil
Book:        Brazil, A Country Study
Author:      Jan Knippers Black
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 1G.   President Emilio Garrastazu Medici

     On October 7, 1969, the High Command of the Armed Forces (Alto-Comando
das Forcas Armada-ACFA) announced the selection as presidential candidate
of General Emilio Garrastazu Medici, commander of the Third Army and former
chief of the National Intelligence Service (Servico Nacional de
Informacoes-SNI). Medici, who was to govern for five years, had served 42
years in the army but was little known by the public. The military
triumvirate promulgated provisions that incorporated the numerous
Institutional Acts and other decrees into the 1967 Constitution, which
legitimized increased authoritarian rule. The Congress was reconvened
from its 10-month forced recess to validate the selection of Medici and
was then again recessed.

     Some of President Medici's ambitions for his term in office were
contained in a master plan entitled "Project Brazil: Great Power." In
particular he sought-and in large measure achieved-dramatic increases
in economic growth, expansion in the provision of technical training and
of "moral and civic" education, expansion in governmental capabilities in
the areas of intelligence and communications, and progress toward the physical
integration of the country through the construction of the Transamazon and
peripheral highway systems. Upon assuming office, he had pledged to leave
democracy firmly installed by the end of his term. In early 1970, however,
he explained that the pledge had been an expression of hope rather than a
commitment and that in the meantime the president would retain extraordinary
emergency powers.

     Meanwhile, in late 1969 and in 1970, conflict had escalated between the
Roman Catholic Church and the military over the issue of torture. The use
of torture on political prisoners and the kidnapping of diplomats by guerrilla
groups in order to free political prisoners appeared to reinforce each other.
The arrests of some 4,000 persons in November 1970, the month when
congressional elections were held, were condemned by the National Conference
of Brazilian Bishops. The following month the Swiss ambassador was kidnapped
and ransomed for the release of 70 political prisoners.

     Elections posed no problem for the Medici government. In October 1970
gubernatorial candidates, personally selected by the president, were routinely
ratified by the previously purged state legislatures. The congressional
elections in November returned a heavy majority of Arena members. Congress
became increasingly cooperative. In 1971 it approved 100 percent of the
projects introduced by the executive.

     Media censorship was tightened more each year, and regulations
designed to control the flow of information proliferated. In November 1971
Medici issued a presidential decree authorizing the president to make secret
laws. In August 1972 O Estado de Sao Paulo, the leading newspaper of that
city, in a marked departure from the caution generally displayed by all of
the communications media, questioned why the frequency of arbitrary arrests
should be even greater at that time than at the height of the incidence of
political kidnappings and other such revolutionary acts.

     Elections continued to be held more or less on schedule. In fact,
voting remained compulsory, and those who refused to participate were subject
to severe penalties. Thus in the elections of November 15, 1972, voter turnout
was higher than it had ever been, but blank or nullified ballots outnumbered
valid ones, which by law invalidated the election. This produced some
extraordinary electoral results. For example, in the city of Sao Sebastiao
de Lagoa de Roca, in Paraiba, an Arena candidate ran without opposition and
lost; that is, there were more blank or nullified ballots than votes for the
sole candidate. In various cities a significant number of votes were cast for
"Sujismundo," a government-created cartoon character that represented a
nationwide cleanliness campaign, and for a reputed international Mafia figure
who had been arrested in Brazil. In Salvador, Bahia, a wildcat that had just
escaped from the local zoo polled more than 5,000 votes, more than the
candidates of both government and opposition parties.

     Although censorship had spared the public from many categories of
information, the media had not ceased to be an important vehicle for political
communication. The government made extensive use of radio and television to
identify the military leaders with the Brazilian soccer team's victory in the
1970 World Cup competition, to disseminate patriotic oratory and symbolism in
connection with the celebrations of the sesquicentennial of national
independence that went on throughout 1972, and in general to provide the
public with a sense of vicarious participation in the national prosperity,
modernization, and progress toward great-power status that had come about
since 1964.

     In 1973 Medici expressed his evaluation of the accomplishments of the
military government in the political sphere on the occasion of the ninth
anniversary of the "Brazilian Revolution." "Uniformity in thought and action,"
he said, "is the principal reason for the speed and efficiency with which our
country is being modernized and the bonds of solidarity between Brazilians are
being forged."

     On the issue of the selection of a successor to Medici in the presidency,
such uniformity was encouraged by a strictly enforced ban on any mention of
the topic until June 18, 1973. Medici then announced that General Ernesto
Geisel would be the candidate of the government party. Geisel had been chief
of the Military Household in the government of Castello Branco and more
recently had served as president of Petrobras. He represented a faction of
relatively moderate and nationalistic officers, as opposed to the more rigidly
authoritarian group that was also more favorable to foreign business
interests. On January 15, 1974, the electoral college gave Geisel 400 of the
476 votes cast.

     The MDB charged that the electoral college was a farce, for thousands
of dissenters had been banned from any participation in politics. Twenty-one
of the party's would-be electors refused to vote at all, maintaining that
voting would signify going along with the farce. The remaining 76, however,
agreed to participate in exchange for the right to express themselves more
or less openly in an "anti-campaign." Speaking to the electoral college, MDM
party leader and presidential "anti-candidate" Ulysses Guimaraes urged the
government to do away with "unemployment, arbitrary arrests and persecution,
police terrorism, torture, and violence."

The Economy under the Military Regime

     During the first three years after the military seizure of power,
Brazil's economic performance continued to be dismal by anyone's standards.
Inflation and unemployment were high, growth and new direct investment low,
and in response to the policy known as "constructive bankruptcy," nationally
owned businesses were eliminated or sold off at a rapid pace.

     Inflation was gradually dampened, however, through a cutback in effective
demand. Demand was reduced through the pruning of social services,
particularly those involving income transfer, and through wage freezes. Frozen
wages, along with other indicators that the government had brought labor under
control, eventually began to inspire the confidence of investors, particularly
foreign ones. Other measures, such as credit, tax, and tariff policies,
commonly favored foreign businesses over domestic ones, and limitations on
the
repatriation