Abstract

Washington Backs the Pooh Bahs

The United States has once again become entangled in a Latin America dilemma resulting from its own meandering policies in inter-American affairs. In this instance, the diplomatic blunder concerns Brazil, the largest, richest and most potent of the Latin American countries, where the government of President Artur da Costa e Silva last December 13 made official the nation's military dictatorship. Costa e Silva signed the Fifth Institutional Act, a decree without judicial appeal, which declared a state of siege, closed Congress and imposed press censorship. This was accompanied by a police roundup which resulted in the imprisonment of some 200 oppositionists. In supplementary action, the President deprived the Brazilians of their last vestige of political and individual rights.