Marxist axis in Latin America. (Insider Report).

Nearly 40 years ago, as Brazil teetered on the precipice of a Marxist coup, that nation's middle class arose in a peaceful counter-revolution preventing the takeover. Ravaged by inflation and subversion, Brazil -- the largest nation in South America -- appeared doomed. Guerrilla teams had been organized, trained, and armed; Communists had infiltrated the lower echelons of the military; "liquidation lists" of prominent anti-Communists had been drawn up. Communist Party chieftain Luiz Carlos Prestes defiantly declared: "We already have the power; we have now only to take over the government!"

But in typical fashion the Communists had neglected the most important potential obstacle: timely, organized opposition from the Brazilian people. The focal point of the uprising was Dona Amelia Bastos, a tiny, 59-year-old housewife and former schoolteacher, who organized Brazil's housewives to educate their friends and neighbors and to mobilize against the Communists. Inspired by this mass movement, military and political officials still committed to the rule of law took decisive action to prevent the coup. That action resulted, thankfully, in minimal loss of life. The people of Brazil, "working against hardened communist revolutionaries ... [proved] that communism can be stopped cold, when people are sufficiently aroused and determined," observed the November 1964 issue of Reader's Digest.

The memory of this victory for freedom is bittersweet in light of the election of Luiz Inacio ...