Brazil: Hurricane Blows Lid Off Hummingbird Hype?

What’s wrong with this picture? FX overkill at Anhembi: Globo tends to swamp its excellent Carnaval camera work with cheesy post-production effects that recall the cheap psychedelia of the Haight-Ashbury heyday. Source: The NMM personal Gradiente-brand boob tube, São Paulo, Brazil.

Escutas telefônicas colocam em dúvida título da Beija-Flor (Estado de S. Paulo): As a sidebar to the current investigation of ties between illegal gambling rackets and senior police and judges in Brazil, the victory of the Rio grand champion in this year’s Carnaval is being called into question.

One of the bicho bankers arrested was “honorary president” of the society, Beija-Flor of Nilópolis, RJ. Another was the president of the League of Independent Samba Schools, LIESA — whose Web site is hosted at Globo.com.

As I pointed out at the time, the victory was clouded by what I thought was the suspicious timing of some major media exposure for the winning carnival society.

Its puxador de samba, or featured singer, along with its bateria — drum corps — and destaques — gorgeous dancers — were featured heavily on Rede Globo programs both before and after Carnaval — first as a featured performer in Big Brother Brasil, on Carnaval eve, and then later as a featured performer in the final episode of the soap opera Páginas da Vida.

That, coupled with a narrow victory in the Globo-televised Carnaval parades — an event with Super Bowl-like ratings — seemed awfully convenient to me.

So we shall see. It seems that Globo may some explaining to do.

A police official making the revelation on Globo’s own highly popular Fantástico program — my wife and I are regular viewers — is an interesting detail.

Whispers about corruption at the company included a startling and very public statement by the outgoing governor — in her farewell address to the state legislature — that Globo maintained undeclared offshore in the Caymans account used for political slush-fund contributions and the like. Mrs. Garotinho even specified an account number.

For some of my couch-potato notes on this year’s Carnaval, see Hummingbirds Roar Like the Lion King at Sapucaí.

I am a big fan of the Nilópolis Hummingbird, by the way, from a carnivalistic point of view.

So this could break some hearts, including ours, even though the organized crime-Carnaval nexus is folkloric and notorious, if formally unacknowledged by the news media.

Two board members of an A-list São Paulo school, for example, were recently arrested as alleged leaders of the PCC narco (and diversified vice and black marketeering — they are a bit like Philip Morris in that respect) faction.

Our local school, meanwhile, was sponsored by the BOVESPA stock market and featured a corporate social responsibility theme. See Bovespa Boogies with the Black Pearl.

Diga que não é, Zé!

RIO – Escutas telefônicas realizadas pela Operação Hurricane (furacão, em inglês) colocam em dúvida o título da campeã do Carnaval do Rio deste ano, a Beija-Flor de Nilópolis. Durante entrevista ao programa Fantástico, da Rede Globo, no domingo, 15, o delegado federal Emanuel Henrique Oliveira, que faz parte da operação, afirmou que há fortes indícios de que o dinheiro da contravenção tenha comprado o resultado do carnaval carioca. Nos últimos cinco anos, a escola ganhou quatro vezes.

Wiretaps carried out as part of Operation Hurricane are casting doubt on the title of 2007 Rio Carnaval champion Beija-Flor (“hummingbird”). During an interview with the Globo TV network’s Fantástico, on Sunday, federal police official Emanuel Henrqiue Oliveira, who took part in the operation, said there are strong indications that the result was bought with bribe money. The school has won the championship four out of the last five years.

A Globo TV reporter, José Messias Xavier, was listed on the payroll of an illegal gambling enterprise known popular as “the one-armed bandit mafia.” See Pela Internet: How Rio One-Armed Bandit King Paid Off Cops.

He was arrested late last year and dismissed from the broadcaster. All mentions of him have been expunged from Globo Web sites, according to an informal but not unconcerted search effort by the NMM-Tabajara content management and historical revisionism research labs.

Xavier is accused of having sold information he gained as a reporter, under confidentiality pledges to law enforcement sources, to the subjects of police investigations.

Seized accounting records that indicate Xavier received a salary of $R1,000 (US$500) for this work.

See A Globo Debacle Not Even the Soap Opera Scriptwriters Could Have Dreamed Up.

Anti-corruption pushes are busting out all over, on local initiative or as part of a state-federal cooperation plan. See, for example, Brazil: Gaúcha Gov Goes After Games Without Frontiers.

We keep waiting for Mr. Serra in São Paulo to unveil some efforts in this direction. There have been signs of it, but not a lot of ink spilled on it.

The internecine political struggle — “Toucan on Toucan violence” — for control of the PSDB party may have a lot to do with that.

The Serra group’s relationship with the faction supporting Geraldo “the non-deMalufifier” Alckmin have publicly soured. I will translate what I think is some solid analysis on that when I get a chance. If you are interested.

Segundo o delegado, o título do carnaval deste ano pode ter sido comprado por Anísio Abraão David, patrono da Beija-Flor preso durante a operação da Polícia Federal. “Há fortes indícios de que esse resultado tenha sido manipulado pelo senhor Anísio”, afirmou Oliveira.

Acccording to the PF inspector, the title may have been bought by Anísio Abraão David, the Beija-Flor patron arrested during Operation Hurricane. “There are strong indications that the result was manipulated by Mr. Anísio,” Oliveira said.

Durante o programa, a Rede Globo exibiu imagens exclusivas divulgadas pela Polícia Federal que mostram a fortaleza do sobrinho do presidente da Liga das Escolas de Samba do Rio, Aílton Guimarães Jorge, o Capitão Guimarães, em que os agentes encontraram malotes de dinheiro, cerca de R$ 10 milhões, em uma parede com fundo falso. Para chegar à quantia, os agentes da PF quebraram a marretadas a parede que desconfiaram ser falsa.

During the program, Globo showed exclusive images from the PF showing the fortress of the nephew of LIESA president “Capt. Guimarães,” where agents found briefcases full of money, nearly R$10 million (US$5 million), in a wall with a false bottom. PF agents broke through the wall, which they suspected to be false, with sledgehammers.

O dinheiro estava no escritório de Júlio Guimarães, sobrinho do bicheiro Aílton Guimarães, o Capitão Guimarães, presidente da Liga das Escolas de Samba do Rio de Janeiro (Liesa), também detido na Hurricane. Ao vasculhar o escritório, policiais desconfiaram que um armário embutido poderia esconder uma parede falsa. Depois de arrancar o fundo do móvel, os agentes decidiram usar uma marreta contra a parede de alvenaria, que descobriram ser oca. Em seguida, examinaram o compartimento com uma lanterna e se entusiasmaram ao descobrir uma montanha de dinheiro. “Muita grana, moleque!”, exultou um policial.

The money was found in the office of Júlio Guimarães, nephew of the bicho banker and LIESA president, who was arrested in Operation Hurricane. While searching the office, police suspected that a built-in chest of draws might conceal a false wall. After pulling out the drawers, the police decided to use a sledgehammer on the masonry wall, which they found was hollow. Next, they inspected the compartment with a flashlight and were overjoyed to find a mountain of money. “Lots of dough, dude!” crowed one policeman.

Eram dezenas de malotes recheados com maços de R$ 10 mil. Para contar o dinheiro, a polícia precisou usar máquinas. Depois disso, os malotes foram transportados por helicóptero e carro-forte e ficariam no Banco Central.

Dozens of briefcases were found, filled with R$10,000 packets of banknotes. To count the money, the police had to use counting machines. Afterwards, the briefcases were transported by helicopter and armored car to the Central Bank.

A Operação Hurricane realizou 25 prisões nos Estados do Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Bahia e no Distrito Federal e ocorreu após um ano de investigações, ordenadas em uma operação sigilosa pelo ministro do Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) César Peluzzo.

Hurricane resulted in 25 arrests in Rio, Sâo Paulo, Bahia and the federal district and followed a year of secret investigations overseen by Supreme Court justice César Peluzzo.

A operação tem como objetivo desarticular uma organização criminosa que atuava na exploração do jogo ilegal e cometia crimes contra a administração pública. Foram cumpridos 70 mandados de busca e apreensão e 25 mandados de prisão contra chefes de grupos ligados a jogos ilegais, empresários, advogados, policiais civis e federais, magistrados e um membro do Ministério Público Federal.

The aim of the operation was to break up a criminal enterprise that ran illegal gambling and committed crimes against the public administraiton. 70 search warrants and 25 arrest warrants were served … [this is boilerplate from the original writeup, as is the rest]

Os 51 veículos apreendidos pela Polícia Federal na Operação Hurricane foram avaliados em cerca de R$ 10 milhões, incluindo uma Mercedes-Benz de cerca de R$ 550 mil. Isso aumenta ainda mais o valor de bens apreendidos com os 25 presos pela operação, deflagrada no Rio, na última sexta-feira, 13.

[tktktktk]

A investigação começou há um ano na 6ª Vara Federal do Rio, com a juíza Ana Paula Vieira de Carvalho e, em setembro de 2006, foi remetida pelo procurador geral da República, Antônio Fernando de Souza, para o Supremo Tribunal Federal, devido ao surgimento do nome do ministro do Supremo Tribunal de Justiça Paulo Medina.

[tktktktk]

A partir de então, o inquérito 2.424/2006 passou a ser presidido pelo ministro do STF Cézar Peluso. Ele autorizou a instalação de escuta, inclusive no gabinete de Carreira Alvim, cujos microfones foram descobertos no forro do teto. Alvim, que disputava a presidência do TRF, acusou na época a direção do Tribunal pelos grampos. Na eleição, ele foi derrotado por 15 votos a nove.

[tktktktk]

I am disappointed that more detail is not provided about the charges of rigging the competition broadcast exclusively on Globo’s Globeleza 2007 program.

I would bet the PF are sending a message by breaking it in this way.

And getting a kick out of it, too.