BRAZIL'S SARNEY MEETS STRIKES WITH SHOW OF FORCE

  With troops in place in Brazil's
  ports and oil installations, the government of Prersident Jose
  Sarney today sought to end a wave of labour unrest by a show of
  force.
      Yesterday the government sent thousands of troops supported
  in some instances by tanks to occupy nine oil refineries and
  six areas of oil production.
      The state-oil company Petrobras requested the intervention
  because of a threatened strike by 55,000 oil industry
  employees.
      The government had already dispatched more than 1,000
  marines to occupy the country's main ports after a national
  seamen's strike was ruled illegal last Friday.
      The strike by 40,000 seamen, now in its 13th day,
  represents a stern challenge to the government.
      The stoppage has delayed exports at a time when Brazil
  desperately needs foreign exchange.
      It was a deterioration in the country's trade balance which
  precipitated Brazil's current debt crisis and the decision on
  February 20 to suspend interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of
  commercial debt.
      There was no sign today of an early end to the seamen's
  strike, which has badly hit the port of Santos -- the most
  important in South America -- and the country's other main
  ports.
      Small groups of marines armed with submachineguns stand on
  the quays near the strike-bound ships, but the military
  presence here is generally discreet.
      A total of 800 marines are inside the docks but most are
  out of sight.
      Yesterday marines and police occupied one ship, the
  Docemarte, seamen's leaders said. After explaining to the
  captain that the strikers faced up to one year in jail because
  the strike was illegal, the men returned to work.
      One of the strike leaders, Elmano Barbosa, said "it is a
  psychological war. They are using force and we are using
  peaceful methods."
      Port sources said only two Brazilian ships in Santos, the
  Docemarte and the Henrique Leal, were working.
      At the seamen's national strike headquarters in Rio de
  Janeiro, spokesmen say a total of about 190 ships are
  strike-bound in Brazil and in foreign ports.
      Contradicting earlier reports from strike headquarters in
  Rio de Janeiro, seamen in Santos said the strikers on board
  ships here were not running out of food.
      The current labour unrest is the worst faced by Sarney's
  civilian government since it came to power two years ago.
      Yesterday, in a separate protest, hundreds of thousands of
  farmers held rallies directed largely against high bank
  interest rates.
      The current rash of labour unrest in industry and
  agriculture stems from the failure of the government's
  now-collapsed Cruzado Plan price freeze.
  

