Word from the Army

Brazilian army leaders carried out their bloodless "preventive revolution" (TIME. Nov. 21) with the avowed intention of seeing to it that President-elect Juscelino Kubitschtk is duly inaugurated on Jan. 31. But are they also willing to guarantee the inauguration of leftish, controversial Vice President-elect Joao Goulart? The many Brazilians who dislike and mistrust "Jango" Goulart were eager to believe rumors that army chiefs would try to pressure him into resigning his claim to the vice-presidency. In a statement to the press last week, War Minister Henrique Teixeira Lott squelched the rumors. "If the electoral tribunal declares Senhor Goulart elected," he said, "he must be inaugurated. The fact that I, for example, did not vote for him is no reason for me to oppose his inauguration."

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