Dl \K1MI ' 'i RtP A F FOR RM USE ONLY ' / m E. = A-26 UNCLASSIFIED N E A c u HANDLING INDICATOR fm 2 45 TO DEPARTMENT OF STATE E 1 C L F 5C X .STHiZUTlON A G R COM FRB FROM AmConsul Porto Alegre DATE: 1 N T L A B TAR SUBJECT (SPECIAL) WEEKLY SUMMARY No. 22 T R XM« A!R < REF ARMY CI A MAW r I J" The Consulate recommends that this document not be disseminated o SO US' i outside the U.S. government offices. Preparation of the following summary was motivated by the unusual nature of the first item. The regularly scheduled summary, with Political and Psychological sections, will be forthcoming next week. 1. The Scratching of Operation "Goldfinch"; ITo Brazilian Christmas For Leonel Brizola 2. Justino and lido Accused of Tampering With Military Justice 3. "Colonial Roads": A New USAID Operation 1. The Scratching of Operation "Goldfinch"; No Brazilian Christmas For Leonel Brizola On or about 1500 hours on the afternoon of Thursday, November 26, a Varig "Coro'nado" (Convair 990) plane bearing the identification letters PP-VJG was warming up at Porto Alegre's Salgado Filho airport, about to take off (supposedly) for Buenos Aires. Suddenly, the pilot received or< from the control tower to taxi back to the terminal. Once the plane hs.C returned the door was flung open and stern-looking burly security men sc.' a good-looking, clean-cut passenger and. dragged him struggling down to t airstrip. They were well advised in doing so, for he was none other t) ex-Air Force captain Alfredo Ribeiro Daudt, who had been drummed out of service as a subversive in the post-revolutionary purges. On this part:' ,3 occasion, he was apparently bound for Montevideo, rather than B.Ac, and intention was to lay before ex-federal deputy Leonel Brizola (PTB-Guanal a) a plan of death and destruction which included, the taking-over of military garrisons in Porto Alegre and Sao Leopoldo, the blowing-up of/ an army J UNCLASSIFIED FffiR DEPT. USE ONLY DS-323 1 In • Out Drafted by: Contents and ClassTfication Approved by: TJDuffield:gb Clearances: UNCLASSIFIED 2 AIRGRAM A-26 PORTO ALEGRE ammunition dump, the assassination of figures most prominently identified with the '^arch-April Revolution, and last but not least, the bombing by small air• craft of three primary targets, with the objective of sowing panic and confusion in the ranks of the military and of civilian security forces. The plan was drawn up in traditional military manner, with only the D of D-Day to be filled in - presumably by Brizola himself. The elements to carry it out would be the famous "groups of Five" - successors of the pre-Revolution "groups of Eleven". In honor of the air portion of the plot, the latter was given the name - it is not clear by whom - of Operacao Pintassilgos (Operation Goldfinch). • The above represents a consensus of the reports carried by the various papers, and unclassified information obtained elsewhere. There is some difference of opinion as to whether the plane was about to take off, whether it was not in fact bound for Montevideo all the time, rather than ostensibly for Buenos Aires, whether Daudt was in the plane or in the terminal bar when he was seized, whether the plans were in his suitcase or on his person, vrtiether he did or did not roll them into a ball which he dropped surreptitiously, not sufficiently, however, to escape the eagle eye of a security man. It seems well established, however, that the plans were in fact discovered and that Daudt was the man who was carrying them. The only unusual local news which appeared in the following morning's papers was that Joao Caruso, a former PTB deputy well identified with the Brizola line, had once again been taken into custody by the police. Actually, some 220 persons, representing a Who's Who of the PTB in the Bad Old Days, together with like-minded ex-Army officers, a surprisingly large representation of past and present officers of the Brigada Militar (state constabulary)and of civilians of various degrees of subversion - curiously enough omitting certain political figures who come mighty close to being downright Cornmunists were reported taken into custody by various security forces. Brizolaphiles. Wilson Vargas and Sereno Chaise, both cassado PTB state deputies, were being sought for arrest, but it is not clear wh< "1 or not they were ever found. Their lawyers, with admirable foresight, are said to have requested their habeas corpus before they were even booked. Folha da Tarde, afternoon tabloid, carried the first report of the plot, an< subsequent papers have added a wealth of detail and speculation, linking it up wit] the Goi^s troubles and with evil intentions of persons elsewhere in Rio Grande do Sul, elsewhere in Brazil and elsewhere in South America. Speculating in a strictly unclassified manner, the Consulate can only note i coincidence between the date the news was released - November 27, and the arinivt sary of the Communist intentona (frustrated coup) of 1935, and point out that v. > rest was growing in consequence of the Goia*s affair and even more so on account of the steady rise in the cost of living, the latter having prompted two statements from General Justino Alves Bastos, CG III Army (See Weekly Summary No. 20-21, A-25, UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED 3 AIRGRAM A-26 PORTO ALEGRE November 2k), It is also interesting to note the large number of Brigada Wtlitar personnel -who were taken into preventive arrest. While existence of the plot must be recognized, was it absolutely necessary to make so many arrests on the basis of the documents discovered? How shrewd a plotter boards a plane for Montevideo - or even for Buenos Aires - with complete operational plans in his possession? While road-blocks were set up on the two main highways giving access to the city (following the arrest of Captain Daudt), why should the attitude of the persons searching the halted vehicles have been careless or at the best perfunctory? The conclusion the Consulate would draw - on the.basis of no "inside" in• formation - is that discovery of the planned terrorist action came at a time when the authorities were anxious to remind the public that the Revolution had been directed against some pretty evil people, who would have done Brazil no end of harm if they had been able to carry out their nefarious schemes, and that the fangs of these reptiles had by no means been completely pulled. A temporary rise in the cost of living and such incidents as the intervention in Goia"s were a small price to pay in return for the continued vigilance of the authorities in thwarting the plans of these vipers. On the alarmist side, it is indeed frightening to think that even Brizola could plan or accede to plans which might have resulted in plenty of fire and blood• shed, but which - surely - Would have ended in a Last Stand, possibly on Porto Alegre's Praca da Alfandega, near the monument containing the text of the late Getillio Vargas' carta-testamento. It is even worse to think that less exalted persons than Brizola might have had reason to believe that there would in fact be no Last Stand, and that the plot would have touched off a successful counter• revolution. At any rate, if it had been Brizola's plan, as some have suggested, to sp . Christmas I96I+ in Porto Alegre, against a background of crackling flames, with the bodies of General Justino and Governor lido dangling from the symbolic Petrobras "rig" in the above mentioned Praca da Alfandega, it looks as if the "Valiant of the Pampas" would have to make other holiday arrangements. 2. Justino and lido Accused of Tampering With Military Justice While General Alves Bastos and Governor Meneghetti may have been spared fj the rope, knife or bullet of the assassin, they are co-defendents against a ch; rge brought before them by the presiding magistrate of the 1st Military Court of Justice of the Jvd Military Region, Dr. Lauro Schuch, and addressed to the px.- siding magistrate of the Superior Military Tribunal, Rio de Janeiro, GB. Not a military man, Dr. Schuch is better known as the President of the Association of Cooperatives (ASCOOPSR) and as a landowner. In his capacity as a cooperative jurist, he recently attended a meeting in Washington of his counterparts from UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED If AIRGRAM A-26 PORTO ALEGRE other American countries. Dr. Schuch's complaint against the General is that the latter had attempted to intimidate him, against his better judiciary judgement, into ordering the arrest and holding for prosecution of persons vho had been caught trying to organize "groups of Eleven". Schuch did not claim that the work of these groups did not constitute subversive activity. Ms point, however, was that the offense against national security did not fall solely within the jurisdiction of the military courts, but could also be dealt with by a regular criminal court, depending on the identity and status of the person accused. General Justino, however, had. apparently openly expressed his displeasure over such pettifoggery, and when Schuch tried to see him in order to tell his side of the story, he was told that the General "had his belly full" (estava com o saco cheio) and refused to receive him. Hopefully, the judge pointed out in his message to his superior that the penalty for threatening or using violence against a magistrate was punishable by up to 8 years imprisonment.