/ACTION DEPARTMENT OF STATE RM/ R REP A F / @& 3 IR ® !B & FOR RM USE ONLY ARA EUR FE A-52 CONFIDENTIAL N E A CU INR, HANDLING INDICATOR J TO |5 AM 9 Department of State \%} jtjL 12 E P IO DEPARTMENT GF STATE / BUREAU CF L FBO AID R • N ifcjr iHCfK AFFAIRS ANALYSIS & 1 L.-. At 141953 3 AGR COM FRB FROM AmEmbassy RIO DE JANEIRO DATE: July 9, 1963 INT LAB TAR SUBJECT The Campaign Against Governor Carlos' Lacerda j? I L E No Action TR XMB AIR REF ARA:LA/BR •f r. Burton ARMY CIA NAVY r s~ SUMMARY JUL! 6 .9* OSD USI A NSA e The administration of Governor Carlos Lacerda of Guanabara has come under almost continuous attack; under a variety of pretexts. Some of these attacks have apparently been inspired by the Goulart Administration, and all of them have been exploited by those political elements who are opposed to Lacerda. This airgram outlines a chronology of some of the more recent virulent attacks made on Lacerda and concludes with the Governor's recapitulation of the charges and his defense of his actions (See enclosure). The administration of Guanabara State Governor Carlos Lacerda has been under almost continuous attack since its inception. At times these attacks have taken the form of con• trolled action in the vital field of food supplies, as was the case during the latter part of 1962 when the rice supply Guanabara reached such a critically low point *hat Army unils (under the direction of General Albino Silva, now President of Petrobras) had to move in to handle distribution. The^ollxical nature of this problem is pointed out by the fact thatr-onte in the State of Guanabara did suchsiyifirjrtage exist. The-rekl reasons for the.shortage were apparently l) the artiffSally low prices enforced by the federal government which made 1$ unprof• itable to sell rice in the state and 2) some reported ^pressure on shippers from Rio Grande do Sul to avoid' shipping to L-Guanabara. —I 3: GROUP Downgrade after FO/ DEPT. USE ONLY Fl£ years. CONFIDENTIAL DS-323 VjL] In I 1 Out Drafted byi^-r rs-nr? • 1 -i / J_ Contents and Classification Approved by: POL:DEZwei^el/rstp DCM - Minister Meinta\. Clearances: sjri*n POL - Mr. Carson DECLASSIFIED Authority CONFIDENTIAL .A-52, 7/9/63 Page 2 of 5 Rio de Janeiro Since the era of Getulio Vargas, Lacerda has heen regarded by the masses as the man who "killed" the ex-dictator. Although these charges are only effective among the poorly educated masses, they continue to provide an emotional base open to exploitation by the Governor's enemies. Early this year, the scandal over the killing of beggars in the state served as an issue to attack Lacerda once again, and he became the victim of a vicious campaign led by Ultima Hora which labelled him "beggar killer." Although Governor Lacerda has not acted at any time to impair the democratic institutions In the state, he typically reaets to charges by replying in rather violent terms. Using his considerable talent as an orator, Lacerda sought to, clear himself of these charges by pointing out that the police chief who had actually perpetrated the crimes was a hold-over ("I don't automatically throw out all incumbents to replace them with my friends.") In an emotional tele• vision presentation, the Governor demonstrated a picture of ex-Presi• dent Juscilino Kubitschek arm-in-arm with the police chief. Just when the beggar-killing scandal was beginning to die down,, a sensational murder of the son of a prominent magazine publisher rocked the administration (Embassy's A-1051, March 14, 19^3). The police system of the state (and of course the governor) again came under attack. All sectors of public opinion, repulsed by the crime, demanded some sort of action, and Lacerda responded with an energetic police campaign in which hundreds of known criminals, petty thieves and probationers were rounded up and arrested. This was what the people had been clamoring for, but while Lacerda was attempting to exploit the issue to call for much-needed police reforms, his detractors soon began charging him with police brutality, etc. In March, the Cuban Solidarity Congress was scheduled to meet In Rio. Waiting until it was too late to make anything more than make• shift arrangements to change the site of the congress, Lacerda pro• hibited its meeting in Guanabara, backing up his decision with the Military Police (Embassy's A-1206, May 6, 1963). In this instance, another facet of the contest became apparent. This was the first time in which the authority of the Federal Government was directly challenged by the governor. There can be no doubt that Lacerda plans his moves carefully and is careful to act within provisions of the law. In prohibiting the congress from meeting In Guanabara, :Lacerda cited a law which had been drafted by the then Justice Minister, Joao Mangabeira, when he was a deputy. Mangabeira himself had to admit that Lacerda was legally justified in his action, and that the Federal Government had no legitimate cause for intervention in the case. CONFIDENTIAL DECLASSIFIED Authority CONFIDENTIAL A-52, 7/9/63 Page 3 of 5 Rio de Janeiro Just as it seemed that Lacerda had won some sort of victory In the issue, a transportation strike in the city (again quite possibly inspired at least partially by the enemies of the governor) gave the Federal Government an excuse for sending Federal troops into the state to "protect" the railroad installations, etc. Lacerda made another of his speeches in defense of his action in which he included a reference to "taking the bull by the horns" which was later inter• preted by his enemies as a thinly-veiled insult aimed at President Goulart (in effect calling him a cuckold ). Emotions were whipped up over this charge, and the abortive meeting scheduled for April 11 to demonstrate solidarity with the President was the result (Embassy's 1209, April 23, 1963). ( This brought to the fore the sharpest public conflict between First Army Commander General Osvino Alves and the then War Minister Amaury Kruel.) At this time, the supposed desire of the Federal Government to intervene in the state government (an act which would have the effect of removing Lacerda from his effective position) became the subject of such wide-spread speculation that the accuracy of the charges can hardly be doubted. A rather severe water shortage compounded by faulty generators led to the next big headache of the governor. The result was electricity rationing which continues to plague the state. In a rather typical manner, Lacerda acted to solve this problem by contracting for the purchase of some generators in the United States. Admittedly this would be only a short-range solution, but one which would provide obvious benefits to the populace of the city. Again the Federal govern• ment moved to place a stumbling-block in Lacerda's path by proclaiming that such purchases could only be made after having been approved by the federal government (although similar cases had not been treated in a similar manner). The final resolution of this problem has not been decided. Spearheaded by Pernambuco Governor Miguel Arrais, there has been a campaign against state and municipal agreements with foreign agencies, especially with USAID (which has always followed the prescribed proce• dures in negotiating Its agreements). Guanabara has come under especial attack as having received a disproportionate amount of U.S. financial assistance, supposedly In part because of Lacerda's political orientation. The detractors of the governor did not have to search long before they discovered that COPEG, a. mixed capital development corporation sponsored by the state, was engaging the services of a New York advertising executive, Robert Bialek, to attract United States capital to the state. Immediately there were charges that Lacerda was maintaining his own agent (an "international adventurer" as well) in the United States. The state Tribunal de Contas, a body charged with CONFIDENTIAL DECLASSIFIED Authority CONFIDENTIAL A-52, 7/9/63 Page 4 of 5 Rio de Janeiro auditing functions at the state level protested that they had not been permitted to examine the COPEG accounts (a charge which Lacerda sup• porters counter by pointing out that COPEG is a company which is not. subject to Tribunal audits). It is evident that there is_ a concerted attack against the governor and his programs. So long as the Lacerda administration continues to give the State of Guanabara an effective and reasonably honest government and so long as the governor continues to attack the federal government at every opportunity, there is reason to believe that an excuse to intervene In the state would be welcome. Thus far, Lacerda has demonstrated considerable political know-how in placing his charges and in countering those launched against him. An underlying current in the campaign against Lacerda has been the attempt to point him out as an ultra-conservative politician who is opposed to all reform. After his stand at the UDN national conven• tion in Curitiba where he succeeded in getting his party to adopt a stand against constitutional amendment on the issue of agrarian reform he was particularly open to such attacks (Embassy's A-1332, May 20, I963). However, Lacerda can only be considered an ultra-conservative on a scale which starts in the middle of the political spectrum and runs far to the left. It is important to note that Lacerda has come out in favor of agrarian reform, including land distribution, but has opposed constitutional amendment as a necessary prerequisite, pointing out that the federal government has a super-abundance of good lands which could be used for an effective redistribution program.