TRENDS IN THE POLITICAL ORIENTATION OF BRAZIL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00429A001200010024-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2005
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: July 23, 1963
• Content Type: IM

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OCI No. 2389/63
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Current Intelligence
23 July 1963
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Trends in the Political Orientation of
Brazil
1. President Goulart, who is essentially an
opportunist of populist and leftist inclinations,
is showing signs that he may be correcting course
temporarily in the direction of the center left.
2. The orientation of the cabinet Goulart in-
itially proposed in mid-June was later modified in
a centrist direction by naming a moderate socialist
as minister of agriculture, rather than the extreme
leftist he first chose. Goulart has also succeeded
in persuading conservative Carvalho Pinto to serve
as the finance minister.
3. This trend will be strengthened if the war
minister makes certain shifts in the army commanders
which will bring forward additional anti-Communists.
The retirement
o extreme leftist First Army Commander Osvino Alves
has placated Goulart's opposition,
4. There are also some indications that the
most extreme leftist in the present cabinet, Foreign
Minister Evandro Lins e Silva, may resign if he
can secure appointment to the Supreme Court, in which
there is a vacancy as a result of the death last
week of a pro-US justice. This would not do much
to diminish his influence, however, since Brazilian
judges are appointed for life, and the 11-man Supreme
Court already includes 3 justices with extreme left-
ist connections of relatively recent date.
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5. On balance, Brazil's foreign policy in
Goulart's hands is likely in any case to continue
to evolve away from support for the United States
and drive for "Big Power" status. Occasional open
hostility toward the US can be expected,
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