After the Earthquake

The political earthquake that shook Brazil a fortnight ago (TIME. April 18) subsided last week. The process of reshuffling the Cabinet continued, but President Joao Cafe Filho calmly went ahead with his plans to fly from Rio this week on a nine-day trip to Portugal, the Brazilian motherland. One reason he could be calm was that the 36th International Eucharistic Congress is scheduled to convene in Rio in July. With 1,000,000 Roman Catholic visitors expected, leaders of all factions want to keep up a hospitable appearance of normality. In the Cabinet comings and goings, a new Finance Minister shouldered the burden of coping with inflation-ridden Brazil's nagging economic problems. Minister Jose Maria Whitaker is a pink-cheeked, white-mustached. 76-year-old Sao Paulo banker with 13 children, 68 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren. Brazilians took heart from his promise to avoid "hasty solutions," and from his reputation as a hardheaded financier. A columnist called the appointment "an unexpected miracle," and the free-market cruzeiro climbed from 86 per dollar to 80, about where it stood on the eve of the earthquake.

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