Rubem Fonseca - Crimes of August

“Getúlio will never resign,” interrupted Deputy Azevedo Pascoal.

“Let me finish. If it’s resignation, or deposition—”

“Deposition? The army is with Getúlio.”

“You forget yesterday’s meeting at the Aeronautics Club,” Freitas continued, “where hundreds of army officers sided with their air force colleagues. Zenóbio declared: ‘Let us unite in defense of peace and the happiness of the Brazilian family.’ And Estillac added: ‘The army is unified against any attempt at a coup and ready to defend the Constitution.’ A coup by whom? What coup is General Estillac referring to? It’s not a coup originating in and inspired by the military. It’s a coup by him who so far has succeeded in every coup, the president of the Republic. In reality the military is warning Getúlio himself. It’s necessary to read between the lines, my friends, to understand the metaphors. The army won’t stand for a pro-Getúlio coup. But the opposite, yes.”

“No need to give us a class, Freitas. No one here was born yesterday.”

“As I was saying — let me continue my reasoning — if Getúlio resigns or is deposed, the UDN will take power, whether by installing its college-boy/military dictatorship or by filling the political vacuum left by Vargas to sweep the October elections. Some sectors of the UDN favor resignation, which will discredit Vargas and undermine the parties that support him, namely us and the PTB. Brazilians don’t like anyone who resigns. But a considerable part of the UDN, led by Lacerda, wants deposition, pure and simple. Few here, I’m sorry to say, heard Afonso Arinos’s speech attacking Getúlio, heard Arinos state that the suspicions of the nation converge on the president, or on persons intimately linked to him — Arinos tactfully refrained from mentioning his son Lutero or his brother Benjamim — and concluded his j’accuse by demanding the removal of Vargas so the crime of Rua Tonelero can be clarified once and for all under conditions of absolute impartiality and security. Arinos speaks of the disintegration of public authority, crisis of morality, those tired — but nevertheless effective — clichés of UDN rhetoric. Arinos’s speech, however, wasn’t violent. He wants the voluntary removal of the president. He belongs to those more intelligent sectors that I mentioned. It’s possible that the procoup faction, which isn’t bothered that the military may take power as long as Getúlio is deposed, will end up prevailing in the UDN. In any case, it seems to me that if Getúlio asks for a leave, they won’t allow him to resume, and it’ll be the same as resignation.”

“Lutero waived his parliamentary immunity so that the whole truth can come out. He swore before God and the nation that he had no involvement in the events, and that the plot using his name is aimed at his father,” said Deputy Azevedo Pascoal.

“Lutero Vargas swore! Does anyone here believe the sworn word of Lutero Vargas? If so, let that innocent raise his hand, I want to see his face.”

Azevedo Pascoal took the floor again. “I was present when Arinos gave his speech, and I thought it indecisive, mediocre, unworthy of the intelligence you mentioned. When he said he suspected the police inquiry, Arinos declared that the police are trying to eliminate the validity of the proofs by a process of ‘enfeeblization.’ That vulgarity doesn’t appear in any dictionary. It strikes me that the abasement of the language, confirmed in the deputy’s speech, reflects his disdain, perhaps unconscious, for our institutions. I believe that Arinos himself wouldn’t mind a coup as long as it brought the UDN to power. They know how to guide and manipulate the military.”

“There’s also José Bonifácio’s speech,” continued Freitas. “You all know the line of the political clan that Zé Bonifácio belongs to — they’re synonymous with provincial shrewdness. To Zé, Getúlio’s government disappeared from the earth along with his personal guard. He believes, or pretends to believe, that the government survives off favors from the armed forces, the love of sergeants, the indifference of the lower ranks, and the hope of truth emerging from this inquiry. The government’s days are numbered, and Zé asks of Getúlio a gesture of pride from a true son of Rio Grande do Sul, asks the president to take the advice that João Neves de Fontoura, in one of his rare moments of political lucidity, gave him: when everything falls apart, Getúlio should display the elegance of the vanquished, look Brazil in the eye, salute, and fall. But fall, says Zé, wrapped in the cloak of dignity and honor, by resigning.”

“UDN politicians, in any situation, always want people to salute,” one deputy joked.

“Zé Bonifácio proposes what he calls the excision of one of the most unspeakable, one of the most abject and purulent abscesses that has ever corrupted the body politic of any nation. We witness, according to the astute deputy from Minas, blood and tears; witness unblemished reputations disintegrate in the common pit of greed; witness the terror of the weak, the cry of victory from the powerful; witness the black market, the delights of inflation causing an air force major not to have the money for a phone while his assassin owned a country home.”

“We can’t turn back the tide. The sea of mud exists,” commented a deputy.

“That country home, few people know,” continued Freitas, “is nothing but a miserable shack between Belford Roxo and Nova Iguaçu. A place the outlaw Climerio calls Happy Repose, with no sewer, no running water, where a handful of pigs wallow in the mud and chickens scratch and peck inside the house. An air force sergeant would be ashamed to live there. Zé Bonifácio knows that, but it’s necessary to arouse outrage, revolt, regardless of the methods used.”

“What’s your point, Freitas?”

“Public opinion is being manipulated shamelessly. But effectively. We need to define ourselves. We can’t hide our heads like ostriches and pretend nothing is happening. There wasn’t a single leader of the majority present at Arinos’s speech and Baleeiro’s, to reply defending the president.”

“Defending the institutions,” said Azevedo Pascoal.

“In the final analysis, defending our party, because defense of the fate of the PSD is intertwined with defense of the institutions. My friends, there are less than two months until the election. We know that Getúlio is innocent of the crime against Major Vaz. Everyone knows that. However senile he may be, Getúlio would never order Lacerda killed, for one simple reason: he and the government would have nothing to gain from the death of the journalist; they would merely create a martyr for the UDN. The assassination was the work of stupid subordinates like the Negro, Gregório, instigated by persons whose interests were being hurt by Lacerda. But the campaign in the press is making people believe Getúlio is guilty. The gunman Alcino was arrested, Gregório was arrested, and they’ll probably say whatever they want them to say. Climerio’s arrest is only a matter of time. A veritable operation of war is being organized to realize that arrest. The scene is set, my friends. Getúlio has no way out. If he remains in power, the loss of prestige will grow by the day. If he resigns, he’ll be abominated, execrated by the people. The fate of the PSD cannot be slavishly tied to that of a president whose days are numbered and who in addition is remiss and negligent.”

“What’s your point?” repeated the deputy.

“When politicians from Minas forsake prudence and stop straddling the fence, it’s a sign there’s no balance of forces and the scale has dipped to one side. I’m convinced the PSD must adopt a stance of independence in this delicate situation.”