Diario las Américas Newspaper, October 14, 1956, Page 24

er IN 1943 a Brazilian army captain named Janary Gentil Nunes arriv- ed in Amapa, a diamond-shaped federal territory lying between the Amazon and French Guiana, to take up the post of governor. This is what he found: In Macapa, a drowsy town with a population of 1,082 that became territorial capital the following year, a group of sagging, one-story buildings along the single street fronting the river. No electric lights. No telephones. No sewers — not even cesspools. The ruins of an ancient colonial fortress. A school whose yard was overgrown was smuggling — perfume and jewelry into Amapa (and thence to other parts of Brazil) from French Guiana, gold the other way. The others were panning gold, gather- ing nuts and rubber, hunting cro- codiles and other animals for skins, cultivating patches of beans and manioc. In short, a stagnant eco- nomy typical of the entire Amazon valley. Yet as in the rest of the valley, immense riches lay hidden beneath the cover of tropical ver- dure. Captain Nunes, five feet one and only thirty-one years old, was un- dismayed. He had federal funds, a Re Workers lay track to manganese fields for railroad financed by local and foreign interests, Some of ore will go into building U. S. naval. vessels, by weeds and creepers. In the entire territory, almost as large as New York State and New Jersey combined, four schools giv- ing instruction up to fourth-grade level to 392 pupils, out of a total territorial population of some twenty-one thousand. No doctors, no police, no railroads, no high- ways, no factories. A sickly people, suffering almost universally from malaria and hook- worm, weakened by insufficient and faulty diet, with no hope for a better future and little means to obtain one. The leading commercial activity staff of specialists and technicians, and plans. In the twelve years he served as governor, he transform- ed this inert geographic mass into a vibrant sector of Brazil’s eco- nomy. As a result, the sluggish pace of life along the entire valley is quickening. Even more is to come. For the forty-three-year-old “Amazon fire- ball,” as one magazine dubbed him, has just been appointed president of Petrobras, the nationalized Bra- zilian oil industry, and recent dis- coveries have strengthened the be- lief that the country’s petroleum future is in the huge Amazon bas- On Santana “Island, port for Macapé, the first diesel-electric loco- motive of the Amapé line to manganese fields is unloaded. Pégina 10 Reprinte@ from AMERICAS, monthly magazine published by the Pan American Union in English, Spanish and Portu- guese. in. The emergence of the Amazon from centuries of lethargy will not come as a surprise to Colonel (as he is now) Nunes. Since childhood he has carried the conviction that his native region could play a vital part in his country’s and the world’s future, and that his destiny was to hasten the day. Colonel Nunes was born in the little village of Alenquer, Para State some four hundred miles up the Amazon from Amapa. Although of modest means, his parents strug- gled to provide their children with an education. Janary attended pri- mary schools at Alenquer and at Obidos, farther up the river. Life on the Amazon was full and exciting. The opendecked river- boats — gaiolas, or “birdcages,” Brazilians call them — chugged up to rickety wooden piers with loads of smoked rubber, Brazil nuts, cat- tle, fibers. The seringueiros told of strange, terrifying animals they encountered while rounds of their rubber trees: the giant pirarucu fish larger than a man, that lives in the river; the peixe-boi, the sea-cow; and the my- sterious boto the river porpoise that is said to transform itself into a man, come ashore and seek out a lover. Even the great brown river itself was fascinating, at flood stage making lakes in the forest, in the dry season edged with sandbars from which flocks of white herons whirled up at the approach of .a canoe. As Janary grew, however, his de- light in discovering the varied won- ders of Nature changed. Nature was so powerful here, so rich. But man? Everywhere he looked he saw a people on the edge of pover- ty in ill health. Children died so easily, yet no one’ thought it strange. There were few old people. All about was furious green growth. But man and his works were sta- tionary. Or lecayed, like the ele- gant old opera house upriver at Manaus. Musti talways be so? In an area endowed so generously with natur- al wealth must man remain help- less? Hadn’t Alexander von Hum- boldt prophesied that the Amazon would one day become the world’s granary? By the time Janary Nunes enter- ed high school in Belém, he had chosen his career. Through the ar- my, which has a proud record of giving the nation devoted adminis- trators, engineers, and pioneers, lay his path of service to his coun- try and to Amazonia. His idol was Luis Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias, the statesman - general who unified Brazil during the reign of Emperor Pedro II. Victor in the war with Paraguay, he once told his troops: “Remember that our enemies are our brothers and like like ourselves, Americas, and once defeated must be treated as such.” Janary took special courses in mathematics and history, and in 1930 was accepted as a cadet at the National Military Academy in Realengo, a suburb of Rio. After graduating from Realengo, where he edited the Military School Re- view, he served in a number of routine posts in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Parana, and Santa Ca- tarina. World War II found him back in the Amazon, a captain in charge of defenses at the Val-de- Cans air base at Belém, from which supplies were flown to the African front. The First Anti - Aircraft Machinegun Company, which he or- ganized, became a model for future similar units. When his first big opportunity came shortly afterward, Captain Nunes was ready. He had been as- signed to command of the Oiapo- que frontier region in the Amapa area, near the border of French and Dutch Guiana. He concluded that the complete lack of develop- ment of this sparsely settled area, rather than making for safety, act- ually imperiled the nation’s defen- ses by inviting penetration from without. He outlined his views in two reports on frontier problems. The reports were brought to the attention of President Getulio Var- gas, preoccupied with the problem of wartime defenses. Thus when President Vargas in 1943 — for strategic reasons and with the HEMISPHERE making the ~ Amazon fireball How Colonel Janary Gentil Nunes brought Amapa to life LESLIE F. WARREN Visitors to Amap4 can stay in this small but modern hotel, amuse themselves sightseeing or by taking in a movie. hope that direct federal control would stimulate the area’s develop- ment — separated Amapa from the state of Parad and decreed it a federal territory, he named young Captain Nunes its first governor. Five other border territories were created at the same time. “We will start with schools,” Captain Nunes told his staff. His reasoning was clear. Little coul be done with the adults directly for improber habits of diet and sani- tation were already fixed. But per- haps they could be reached through the children. As a temporary measure the tiny Macapa schoolhouse was painted and repaired, it yard cleared. Meanwhile, the governor pushed construction of a new building, and arranged for a teaching staff to be brought up from Rio and SAéo Pau- lo. Today Macapa pupils up through high school attend classes in new, modern structures, where they re- ceive instruction in home econom- ics, commercial subjects, and in- dustrial training. Boys learn such skills as brickmaking, carpentry, metal - working to enable them to produce for the area’s needs. As part of their studies school children cultivate their own gardens, grow- ing a variety of vegetables to add to the traditional Amazonian diet of beans, fish, manioc flour, and dried beef. In eighty - eight rural schools, the first graduates of the territorial normal school are be- ginning to replace “imported” teachers. Amapas school population now numbers almost nine thou- sand. The next problem was health DDT and preventive drugs soon wiped out malaria in the capital, but sanitation in an area where even the practice of building out- door privies was unknown posed a more difficult’ problem. Captain Nunes appealed to SESP, the U. S. - aided federal Special Public Health Service, which was perform: ing a commendable job in the Amazon valley. Today a_ sesp- built sewer system serves all set- tions of the capital. Houses not connected have their own cess- pools. There is a doctor for every 1,471 inhabitants in the territory, and a modern hospital in Macana with a twenty-four-bed maternity ward and a child-care center. Other public services were added: a wat- er-supply system; electricity from~ diesel-powered generators to light streets and homes, run refrigerat- ors and radios, drive machines. On the economic front, the gov- ernor’s attention first turned to agriculture. An experiment station was set up, manned by some of the nation’s top farm experts. In the four-year period 1949-1953 the ter- ritory multiplied rice production by twenty, corn by fifteen, beans by thirteen, and manioc by four. Farmers are being taught to plant rubber as a cash crop from newly developed varieties that are resist- ant to the deadly leaf fungus. When Captain Nunes arrived at Macapa, the territory depended en- tirely on imports for its manufact- ured necessities. Now local shops and factories turn out bricks, tile, sanitary fixtures, flooring, furnit- ure, dairy and other processed food products, even some articles of clothing. Twelve years ago Amapa’s only regular means of communication with the rest of the country were the launch to Belém and a govern- Headquarters of Amaph territorial government in Macapé. | SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1956