THE BRAZILIAN CABINET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00429A001200010030-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2005
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: July 30, 1963
• Content Type: IM

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OCI No. 1587/63
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Current Intelligence
30 July 1963
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: The Brazilian Cabinet
1. President Goulart's new cabinet as it was
finally completed at the end of June has a more
centrist orientation than at first seemed in the
making, but apparently provides no more of a bar-
rier to the regime's leftward drift than the out-
going cabinet. Goulart's basic objective in the
cabinet change seems to have been more to increase
his personal power than to make any significant
change in the orientation of his regime. With in-
creased power, Goulart can be expected to move the
regime further in the direction of his own populist
and leftist inclinations.
2. Goulart's personal power appears to have
been increased by the appointment of War Minister
Jair Dantas Ribeiro, who wants the army to stay
out of politics, and seems less likely to concern
himself about the political aspects of army as-
signments than his predecessor General Amaury
Kruel, Jair's appointments thus far have been
alomst entirely in accord with Goulart's probable
wishes. The replacement of Goulart's long-time
political advisor San Thiago Dantas in the Fin-
ance Ministr
"Rely also to enhance -oulart's independence.
The dismissal of pro-Communist Almino Afonso from
.the Labor Ministry was evidently the result of
Goulart's insistence on retaining personal influ-
ence over organized labor, which has long formed
the core of his political support. The new Labor
Minister Amaury Silva, an apparently pliable cen-
trist, appears unlikely to offer any challenge to
Goulart and may in fact be his tool.
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3. The new foreign minister, extreme leftist
Evandro Lins, is apparently an interim appointment.
Lins, who has been particularly close to Goulart
since the latter became president in 1961, is seek-
ing a Supreme Court post, a move which could con-
siderably increase Goulart's power and the influence
of the extreme left, Appointments to the Supreme
Court are for life, and the 11-man court already
includes three justices;,~with extreme leftist con-
nections of relatively recent date.
4. The appointment of extreme leftist Paulo
de Tarso as Minister of Education was probably a
consequence of Goulart's maneuvers to take advan-
tage of the rivalries between moderates and extreme
leftists in Brazil's heterogeneous Christian Demo-
cratic Party. This appointment seems likely for
as long as Tarso holdsthe post to strengthen pro-
Communist influence In student and teacher organiza-
tions where it is already substantial.
5. The political persuasion of the other cabi-
net ministers varies from slightly right-of-center,
as in the case of the Minister of Industry, to the
socialist but pro-US Minister of Agriculture, None,
however, seem particularly likely or well-placed
to exert influence on Goulart. Several of them--
the ministers of labor, justice, and mines--have
already taken actions suggesting that their centrist
influence will not be marked, The minister of labor
has appointed two extreme leftist aides. The minis-
ter of jbtticb;has elaborated a decree limiting the
autonomy of individual states in initiating requests
for Alliance for Progress aid. The minister of
mines has taken a public position increasing the
difficulties~of setting the problem of US-owned
utilities in Brazil.
6. Subcabinet appointments may be more re-
vealing of trends within Brazil than cabinet ap-
pointments, A tentative analysis indicates that
imost half of 46 selected subcabinet posts are
held by men sympathetic to Communism or at least
hostile to the United States. Since the appoint-
ment of the most recent cabinet, the few new sub-
cabinet appointees include both pro-US and anti-
US elements, but the latter appear to be concen-
trated in posts relating to economic affairs.
Specifically, while two key Foreign Ministry
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appointees are capable and pro-US, the chief .For-
eign Ministry post dealing with economic affairs
has gone to a man strongly critical of the US,
and the four appointees to LADE, a regulatory
agency for important aspects of the domestic econ-
omy, are linked with extreme leftists. These ap-
pointments may'foreshadow difficulties in US-
Brazilian relations concerned with US business en-
terprises in Brazil and in international economic
conferences.
Prospects
7. Goulart is likely to continue his domestic
policy of seeking primarily to increase his polit-
ical power. DespIt+e the technical competence and
honesty of the new finance minister, the economic
prospects are uncertain because of the continuing
tightness of Brazil's foreign exchange position,
and the continuing rise in the cost of living.
On the other hand, prospects for passage of a mod-
erate agrarian reform law have recently improved.
Brazil's foreign policy is likely to continue to
evolve away from support for the United States
in a more or less deliberate quest for "Big Power"
status, characterized by an effort to strike an
independent attitude in the cold war between the
US and the USSR.
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