Word: estillac
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Since World War II a handful of Communists have bored their way into some of the highest places in the Brazilian armed forces. The Reds got one setback in March when President Getulio Vargas fired his War Minister, General Newton Estillac Leal, no Communist himself, but an ultranationalist who insisted that the army should not inquire into an officer's politics. Last week the Reds-and General Estillac Leal-got their lumps again...
...Brazilian officers. Firmly entrenched in the club, the Communists had taken over its monthly magazine, Revista do Clube Militar, published made-in-Moscow editorials blasting the Korean campaign as "Wall Street imperialism" and U.N. troops as "butchers." And even after Vargas dismissed him as Brazil's War Minister, Estillac Leal still held his job as the club's president...
Finally, outraged anti-Communist officers in the Clube Militar united in a "Democratic Crusade" aimed at ousting Estillac Leal in the club's biennial election. To oppose him, they picked General Alcides Gonçalves Etchegoyen, 51, bull-necked chief of Rio's armored division. In a scorching campaign, Estillac Leal denounced his opponents as men who were plotting to give away Brazil's petroleum and mineral riches. Etchegoyen promised to "rid the club of totalitarian influences from left & right." On the appointed day last week, with most of the club's 16,003 members voting...
President Eurico Caspar Dutra's regime finally squelched the Revista. But when Getulio Vargas returned to power last January, Estillac Leal became his War Minister. He permitted the Red editors to revive Revista. When criticism flared, Estillac protested that he was a busy man and took a leave from the club presidency. Army anti-Communists grew angrier. After a bitter campaign, they won a promise that a referendum vote would be held on whether the membership really supported the Revista's leftist editorial policy...
...officers flocked to Rio from all over Brazil. Commies strung wires into the high-ceilinged hall of the Club Militar, prepared to broadcast their last-minute speeches by loudspeaker into the streets below. That evening the War Minister was summoned by President Vargas. After an hour's conference, Estillac Leal went straight to the club, announced that he was resuming the presidency and-to permit "a cooling-off of passions"-postponed the referendum for 30 days...