Ambush

In his fiery crusade against Communism, corruption and President Getulio Vargas, Rio Journalist Carlos Lacerda has gained tens of thousands of loyal friends, scores of vengeful enemies. The 40-year-old editor of Tribune da Imprensa (circ. 50,000) has been beaten by thugs for criticizing the army, arrested for exposing police graft, jailed four times for political reasons, attacked in his home after accusing a high officer of corruption. Recently a pistol-toting hothead tried but failed to provoke the editor to a duel.

"They will try again," Lacerda told a friend. "They'd better be prepared to kill or be killed."

One night last week Lacerda's enemies, prepared to kill, tried again. Lacerda, after addressing a political rally in his campaign for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, was driven home, with his 15-year-old son Sergio, by Brazilian Air Force Major Rubens Vaz. In front of the Lacerda apartment, the editor and the major chatted. As he talked, chunky Editor Lacerda spotted two men loitering across the street, hastily said goodbye to the major and hurried to his door.

But before Lacerda was inside, one of the men ran toward them, ducked behind a car 15 feet away and began shooting a .45. The first two bullets hit the major, and he fell groaning to the sidewalk. The third nicked Lacerda's foot. Pushing his son into the apartment-house garage, Lacerda dropped down behind a wall and fired back with his own .38 pistol. The attacker fired a few last shots, then ran off into the night. Major Vaz died on the way to the hospital, his head in Carlos Lacerda's lap.

Died in War. Two hours later, Lacerda propped his bandaged foot on a hospital stretcher, called for paper and pencil and dashed off a grim, accusing editorial for next day's front page:

"Rubens Vaz, hero . . . father of four children, fell this night at my side. My own son ran with him the risk to which all Brazilians living under a regime of corruption and terror are subject. Those who resist corruption fall victims of violence . . . The sight of Rubens Vaz lying in the street . . . prevents me from analyzing coldly at this moment the hideous ambush of tonight. But before God I accuse only one man as responsible for this crime. He is the protector of thieves, whose impunity gives them audacity for acts like this one tonight. This man is Getulio Vargas . . . Rubens Vaz died in the war ... of the unarmed against the bandits who constitute the Getulio Vargas government . . ."

Victim's Accusation. Few of Lacerda's fellow editors cared or dared to go so far, but all of Rio was roundly shocked. Even the Tribuna's old rival, Ultima Hora, declared the shooting "a crime which under no circumstances can be justified." Major Vaz's fellow air-force officers warned that "If the police don't solve this, we will," and promptly began their own investigation of the shooting. A cabbie who had driven one of the assassins to and from the scene was arrested, but at week's end the assailants had not been identified.

Lacerda insisted, however, that he knew where they came from: "Perhaps as a newspaperman I can't make this accusation, but as the victim I can. I am sure the assassins were members of Getu lio Vargas' personal bodyguard." Replied President Vargas: "I considered Carlos Lacerda my greatest enemy. No man has done so much harm to my government. Now he is my enemy No. 2, because No. 1 is the man who shot at him."

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