BRASÍLIA, Brazil -- Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília last night -- a tribute to a nation's hopes and one man's dream.
When Brasília succeeds Rio de Janeiro with religious and government pomp and ceremony, it will be the culmination of a plan devised in the last century and pushed to fruition in the past four years by President Juscelino Kubitschek.
Hacked out of a wasteland on a 3,000-foot plateau 700 miles inland from Rio on the coast, it is a planned city of daring and extreme modern architectural conception.
The three days of inauguration festivities starting with the official dedication have attracted more than 200,000 visitors to this still-unfinished capital and created a boomtown atmosphere.
Officially, two basic reasons are behind the shift. First, the need to move the nation's center away from the crowded, economically-spent coastal areas to the vast, underdeveloped interior. Second, to free the government from the shackles of Rio, which has been the capital since 1763.
The principal factor, of course, is that although Brazil is the fourth-largest country in the world and one which occupies half the land mass of South America, most of its population of 68 million is concentrated along the coast.
Kubitschek has pushed construction of Brasília as the answer to the problems of a growing population which must find room to live and develop economically.
In the face of bitter criticism, he energetically pulled Brazil along the path of faster industrialization and made the building of Brasília an ambition that became a virtual obsession.
He spurned the danger of a growing inflation and ignored the complaints of his critics in his drive to give his people the progress of "50 years in five years" -- a reference to the gains he wanted in the one term of office allowed a Brazilian president at one stretch.
He poured men and money into building Brasilia to a chorus of cries of financial folly and charges of political finagling. The project was called a nest of waste, corruption, nepotism and plain stupidity.
Kubitschek's foes claimed the city which eventually will cover about 95 square miles in the form of a soaring eagle was a bottomless pit of badly-spent public funds.
How much Brasília ultimately will cost still is pure speculation. Kubitschek says it has cost $15 million to date. Objective observers estimate $100 million, while one opponent charges it has cost the taxpayers $300 million and another says $500 million.
