Brazil Calm After Coup

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30895, 30 October 1965, Page 15

Brazil Calm After Coup

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) RIO DE JANEIRO, October 29. Brazil appears to have accepted President Humber to Castell Branco’s assumption of dictatorial powers with relative calm. There have been scattered incidents in Rio de Janeiro but the country in general seems to have accepted the situation and business and financial circles continue to run normally. A Government spokesman has claimed widespread support for President Branco’s action. “Practically all State governors have telegraphed their support for the measure,” he said. The Government had begun a political party to support it in the Congress, said the spokesman, but he emphasised that Brazil would not be a one-party State. He said political groupings already were forming in the Congress which should serve as a nucleus for new political parties. He said the President had disbanded the old political parties because they were

confused and ineffectual. Three students were shot and wounded by police when University of Brazil students attempted a public protest against a decree which by-pas-sed the Congress and gave the President greater powers than at any time since World War :

11. The decree, in effect, gave the president almost total power. It abolished political parties and authorised the President to declare a state of seige or take over government of any of the country’s 22 States at his discretion.