ARMED FORCES IN BRAZIL FRATERNIZE WITH UNIONISTS
The partial censorship that was clamped down in Rio de Janeiro has not made it easy to sift out the facts concerning a reported "mutiny" of sailors and marines there. Comparing various accounts, it appears that it was a case of fraternization.between members of the armed forces and unionists that has. considerable ‘significance in view of the deepening social crisis.
The incidents began March 24 when Admiral Silvio Motta ordered seven noncommissioned. officers arrested for taking part ina political meeting,
On March 25 some 5,000 members. of the Sailors! and Marines! Association, a recreational organization, assembled at the headquarters of the metallurgical union to celebrate the second anniversary of their Association, They were addressed by their chairman José Anselmo Santos, a 25~year-old rifleman from the poverty-stricken northeast region where the Peasant Leagues of Francisco Juliao are centered,
Anselmo gave a powerful speech in which he called on his com» rades to stand with the workers, peasants and students in their. struggle for structural reforms,.
The naval authorities responded by arresting forty noncommis- Sioned officers. A few hours later, some 1,500 uniformed sailors and marines poured into the trade-union. headquarters to stage a kind of sit-in demonstration of solidarity with their union brothers and opposition to the reactionary admirals,
On March 26 a contingent of 200 marine riflemen were sent to drive out the demonstrators. ‘Instead, they lowered their arms and joined the movement . *
- The Minister of: the Marines called on the Minister of War for’ -help,. A.detachment. of infantry were dispatched to the scene. It appeared that bloodshed was inevitable,. But a. telephone call from higher up [probably Goulart] stopped this and the infantry went back to their barracks.
Some kind of deal was then made and the first contingents of the demonstrators left by the main door of the union hall, smiles on their lips, According to Irenee Guimaraes, special correspondent of the Paris Le Monde PMaroh 29-30], José Anselmo Santos was "carried in triumph on the shoulders of his comrades, chanting nationalist slogans and shouting, 'Death to the reactionary officers.! Calm, intelligent, and master of himself, Mr. José Anselmo stood firm for more than. seventy~two hours and, what is more, succeeded in controlling the most excitable marines,
The incident served to point up the growing polarization of forces in Brazil, The marines in their way sought to encourage Pre-~ sident Goulart to go ahead with the program of far-reaching reforms which he has recently espoused. Top Army and Navy circles are trying to pull the hesitant Goulart in the opposite direction,
An ominous figure, gaining in power in these reactionary cireles, according to Le Mondets correspondent, is one Colonel Klaus Romeo von Glasengap. -
"Between the forces represented by Colonel Klaus Romeo von Glasengap and those represented by Quartermaster José Anselmo," writes Guimaraes, “he [coulart] must choose, and time is runnang ~ short}"
one Bove