representative civilian government. It was a pro-
gressive and prosperous country exporting meat,
cereals and wood and its population of less than
2 million in the 1950s, with large-scale Euro-
pean immigration, was relatively homogeneous.
Uruguay also enjoyed the distinction of having
introduced the first welfare state in the Western
hemisphere. It was not coincidental that tiny
Uruguay was chosen to launch the Alliance for
Progress in Latin America. But the strength of
these traditions did not save Uruguay from a mil-
itary coup in 1973. The excuse was the need to
suppress the left-wing Tupamaros guerrillas. The
first three years of military rule witnessed torture
and killing of victims as horrifying as any in Latin
America.
As elsewhere in much of Latin America, mount-
ing economic problems returned the soldiers to
barracks in 1984. The military leaders handed over
to a civilian government the task of clearing up the
mess and assuming responsibility for the unpopu-
lar austerity measures that would be required. The
civilian president in turn attempted to amnesty
the military who had been involved in human-
rights abuses, but angry demonstrations and the
Uruguayan Congress frustrated his efforts until
- Austerity measures provoked strikes and
general dissatisfaction. One positive development
was that the Tupamaros guerrillas ended their fight
and entered politics; another that free presidential
elections could be held in November 1989, which
gave victory to the candidate of the opposition.
Democracy has shown itself admirably robust
despite its economic problems. Uruguay was badly
hit by Argentina’s financial collapse. To help the
country from following Argentina into default a
savage austerity programme and IMF loan condi-
tions caused the population real hardship.
Brazil
Uruguay’s north-eastern neighbour is Brazil, the
largest and most powerful country on the South
American continent. Although Brazil is the neigh-
bour of all but two South American nations
(Chile and Ecuador on the west coast), geogra-
phy and the Portuguese roots in its history have
tended to isolate it from the rest of the continent.
Yet there are common Latin American features
too, such as the question of the fate of the indi-
genous Indians; in Brazil, intermarriage has prac-
tically submerged them in the multiracial society
of European and African origins. In the least
approachable recesses of the Amazonian jungle
Indian tribes are precariously surviving, threat-
ened by progress, exploitation and the cutting
down of the rainforests. There are probably only
about 220,000 Indians still inhabiting the fron-
tier regions, who supposedly enjoy government
protection.
Until the end of the Brazilian empire in 1889,
Brazil, despite its rich mineral resources, was a
comparatively backward country relying mainly
on the export of coffee. To provide labourers for
the coffee plantations, Africans were sold into
slavery and transported to Brazil, where slavery
was not abolished until 1888. Brazil relied mainly
on exporting coffee and importing manufactured
and luxury goods to satisfy the small urban
middle class and the wealthy plantation owners
and merchants until the 1920s; a small industrial
sector developed, and the coffee oligarchy domin-
ated politics until the revolution of 1930. The
first strong push for industrialisation occurred
during the years from 1930 to 1945 when the
country was ruled by the authoritarian regime of
Brazil’s first outstanding political leader of
modern times, Getúlio Vargas.
Vargas, brought to power by the army in 1930
against a background of economic crisis, intro-
duced a new authoritarian constitution in 1937
which established what was called the estado novo.
The state became supreme in politics, industrial
relations and economic management. No parallel
social revolution was attempted. Vargas had to
maintain the support of a coalition of interests:
merchants, industrialists, the landed oligarchy of
plantation owners with their ill-paid dependent
rural workers, a subsistence peasantry, and urban
workers preserved their unequal shares of the
national wealth. Strict labour laws controlled the
growing numbers of industrial workers. The state
nationalised the banks and basic industries, and
an iron and steel industry was started. Although
by the close of the Second World War Brazil still
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