Former Brazil Regime Eyed Nukes

A former president has disclosed that the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for two decades tried to develop an atomic bomb, but says the program was scrapped when an elected government assumed power in 1985.

The 1964-85 dictatorship was long suspected of seeking nuclear weapons, but ex-President Jose Sarney's comments Sunday were the first confirmation of the program.

Sarney, who led the first democratic civilian government after the dictatorship ended and previously denied the existence of the program, said he was informed that the military had dug a deep well for an eventual nuclear test explosion in a remote area of the northern state of Para.

He didn't say when or how he received the information, but it was shortly after he became president in 1985.

"I reacted with surprise," Sarney told Globo TV, adding that he gave instructions for the well to be sealed. He offered no other details during an interview about the most difficult moments of his presidency.

Brazil's current government had no immediate comment.

Sarney said he denied the existence of the atomic weapons program when he was president so as not to jeopardize talks intended to head off a nuclear arms race with neighboring Argentina.

Argentina also had reinstated democratic rule and both civilian governments were negotiating a nuclear cooperation agreement that eventually cooled a long rivalry between two of South America's most powerful nations.

"The Argentines also were engaged (in developing atomic weapons), but they also denied it, the same way as we did," Sarney said.

Argentina, which had South America's most advanced nuclear power facilities, has always denied it ever had an atomic arms program. But until the early 1980s, the country's nuclear energy program was closely tied to the Argentine military.

During Sarney's 1985-89 term, Brazil and Argentina negotiated a treaty for peaceful use of nuclear energy that gives officials of the two nations free access to most of their nuclear installations.

Sarney would not say how far along Brazil's military was in its work on atomic weapons or how close it was to detonating a nuclear device. But he said that after the treaty with Argentina, Brazilian officials found out their neighbors "were at least 10 years ahead of us."

The two nations later signed the United Nations-sponsored Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which commits them to not obtaining atomic weapons.

In the wake of their treaty, Brazil and Argentina engaged in an economic integration program and created Mercosur, a trade bloc that also includes Paraguay and Uruguay. Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Venezuela are associate members of the bloc.

By Harold Olmos