New Reformist Constitution Is Ready in Brazil

BRASILIA, Brazil — Lawmakers finished work Friday on a new reformist constitution, which they immediately hailed as consolidating democracy in Brazil.

The constitution, Brazil’s seventh since independence from Portugal in 1822, replaces the authoritarian charter drawn up under a 21-year military dictatorship that ended in March, 1985.

Deputies in the Constituent Assembly threw streamers, linked hands and sang the national anthem after Friday’s final vote, which ended 19 months’ work, including two rounds of voting and often-heated debate on 39,000 amendments.

Assembly President Ulysses Guimaraes told the assembly, “Brazil is a new country with the new constitution.”

The constitution will take effect later this month, probably on Sept. 23, when the Assembly adopts the 245-article document in an official ceremony.

It includes a series of reformist measures, including clauses lowering the voting age to 16, banning of all press or artistic censorship and guaranteeing the right to strike.

The new document also mandates control by Brazilian companies over the country’s mining sector and a 12% cap on real interest rates.

On most key issues the assembly overrode the wishes of President Jose Sarney, who mounted a campaign to strike some of the most progressive clauses from the text.

But after the vote, Sarney said: “After the adoption of the constitution, I shall be its first servant.”

A first draft had reduced the military’s role to that of basic keepers of the peace, but rumblings from the still-powerful, behind-the-scenes generals resulted in changes that now define the armed forces’ role under the constitution as that of defenders against external or internal threats.

Extensive land reform, initially proposed for the constitution, was watered down under hard lobbying by landowners’ organizations.