Documents / FOIA release
This is the Central Intelligence Agency's Current Intelligence Weekly Summary of 23 March 1962, a secret digest from the Office of Current Intelligence covering world events. It reviews Soviet foreign policy on Berlin, the Berlin air corridors, disarmament and a nuclear test ban. It also covers Algeria, Argentina's elections, the Congo, Laos, South Vietnam, Guatemala, food rationing in Cuba and Middle East tensions. Special articles assess Brazil under Goulart and Turkey's economic prospects. It contains no UFO material.
“The Times”16 pages
Approved for Release: 2026/03/06 C03176167 /saeREr/ CURRENT INTELLIGENCE WEEKLY SUMMARY /Q The problem of foreign utilities is highlighted by the repeated suggestion of Parana Governor Braga--a po- litical moderate--to American officials that one of the great- est steps the US Government could take to promote better relations would be to facilitate the sale of US privately owned public utilities to local au- thorities. Pernambuco Governor Sampaio and Rio Grande do Norte Governor Alves-—members of the generally conservative National Democratic Union-—are reported preparing to take early action against foreign-owned utilities in their states. Governors also show their autonomy by negotiating inde- pendently for economic aid from foreign countries. Brizola, for example, has been negotiating with the East Germans for as- sistance with the telephone system of his state; Alves has negotiated with Polish repre- sentatives for industrial equip- ment; and Governor Aurelio do Carmo of Para visited Czech- oslovakia in 1961 and appears to have secured a credit of at least $5,000,000. The Land Reform Issue The land reform problem is becoming an increasingly acute political issue, It has already resulted in small-scale violence and may cause serious outbreaks, in view of reported arms distribution to peasant groups both in the northeast and in Rio Grande do Sul. The diversity of agricultural con- ditions in Brazil seems likely t.o.de‘]ay enactment of any effec- tive national agrarian reform »-\_ while stimulating action by in- dividual states. Sao Paulo al- ready has full-scale legislation on the problem, and in several other states some distribution of state lands and colonization is programed. In a more demagogic ap- proach to land reform, Brizola has encouraged landless farmers to seize two tracts of 1and-- one belonging to private Uruguayans and one largely state-owned. Brizola and Gou- lart both own vast tracts of land. In his political ex- ploitation of the land question, Brizola has encouraged the or- ganization of peasant leagues on the model of those formed in the Brazilian northeast over the past two years by pro- Castro Francisco Juliao. While peasant leagues now exist in most Brazilian states, most of them are in the key northeastern state of Pernam— buco, where they have a total membership of about 20,000. The most active league in the northeast, however, and the one reported most likely to resort to violence is in Sape, in the state of Paraiba. It has a membership of 5,000 and apparently forms a nucleus of opposition to the local govern- ment dominated by the National Democratic Union. Orthodox Communists have expressed some disapproval of Juliao because he advocates more violence than the party wants at this time when it is seeking legality. The expul- sion in late 1961 from the Communist party of high—level popular members who advocate /sEem:'r/ Q _|§‘(‘TAT. l\Q’T‘T(_".1Q P23 Mar 62 Appr0ved?0r Release: 2026/53706 003176167 age 4 °f 8
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 42 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.