Two Syrias a Year | The Brazilian Murder Rate

A recent op-ed by Daniel Ricardo de Castro Cerqueira, a researcher  at the Brazilian IPEA – The Institute for Applied Economic Research – in the pages of O Globo.

The headline, «Syria é Aquí» plays off  the Caetano Veloso composition «Haití é Aquí» — no need to look to Haiti for examples of extreme poverty: they exist in abundance here at home.

The UN recently announced that nearly 70,000 Syrians have died since the outbreak of hostilities in that nation.

During the same period,in Brazil, according to calculations based on data from the Ministry of Health, 120,000 Brazilians were murdered.

Unlike wartime violence, however, this social violence is diffuse in origin and has been a part of daily life for decades. Approximately 1.4 million Brazilians have been murdered since 1980.

It is possible to predict within a small margin of error that this year, 60,000 persons will fall victim to homicide. The victims will be, for the most part, young, male, black or brown, with less than a junior high school education. For the most part, they will be shot down in the public streets between 10 p.m. and midnight.

Up until the 1990s, the national debate on public safety raged back and forth. Some called for more policemen  – preferably hard, implacable men capable of putting an end to criminals — while others insisted on a deterministic theory of crime as a natural consequence of social ills.

From 2000 on, however, the debate changed direction. People began to see how simplistic the old bipolar debate had become and to realize that resolving the situation called for social prevention programs operating in sync with quality policing that respected the rights of citizens.

There were important and innovative policy changes during that period as well.  In 2000, After the Bus 174 incident, public safety moved to the forefront of issues debated in municipal elections, and the federal government intervened ever more directly in the situation, establishing a National Public Safety Plan and the National Fund  for Public Safety.

Bus 174 is a 2002 José Padilha documentary — see the freeze frame at the head of this post — about a live on TV standoff between police and a homeless robber who commandeered a city bus. The stand-off ends in the shocking death of a hostage when shots are fired from close range as hostage and hostage taker descend from the bus.

«40 Questions for Yoani Sánchez»

Opera Mundi relays 40 questions for Yoani Sánchez concerning her current world tour, posed by Salim Lamrani of the Université Paris-Est Marnes-la-Vallé.

I offer you a completely draft-quality, madly dashed off, translation of the item. 

Bicho + Globo + LIESA = RICO?

Source: O Globo.

RIO — Sunday, as the spotlights fell on the Special Group at the Sambadrome, an operation by state judicial police internal affairs launched 9 days ago found irregularities inside LIESA, the  League of Independent Escolas de Samba.

Entering the office of LIESA president  Jorge Castanheira, police served search and seizure warrants for evidence reflecting the participation of military police officers — among them, majors and colonels — in the provision of internal security for the festivities, contrary to a ruling by the state secretary of public safety.

Among the documents seized during Operation Finger of God II was a spreadsheet listing 37 names of security personnel hired to control access to the passarela in 2012.

At the time, state secretary Beltrame had already issued an order forbidding the involvement of police personnel in this capacity. In defiance of this rule, six colonels, five majors and a captain are listed in the document as security personnel in the employ of  MJC Eventos. The company has a services contract with Liesa and includes reserve colonel Celso Pereira de Oliveira among its partners.

O GLOBO was provided with exclusive access to some of the materials collected from Castanheira’s office. Seized at the location were two laptops, a CPU, a pen drive and a number of documents.

Give My Regards to the Big Turk

The discovery of police personnel moonlighting as Sambadrome security was not the only problem uncovered by the operation.

Among the papers seized was a handwritten letter of two pages, signed by a certain João Luis, which suggests that  the LIESA president is not exclusively busy with organizing the Carnaval parade.

The author says he is involved in a dispute with bicho banker José Caruzzo Escafura, aka Piruinha, and asks Castanheira to intercede on his behalf with bicho banker Antônio Petrus Kalil, aka The Big Turk.

Piurinha and the Rio Police

Piruinha I have heard of only in passing. The federal police union published the following anecdote.

The federal police investigations that resulted in Operation Black Op show that Haylton Carlos Escafura — the son of  José Caruzzo Escafura, a top Rio bicho banker  — relied on the protection of 10 state judicial police patrol cars during a transfer of automobiles belonging to the agency Euro Imported Cars, in Barra de Tijuca, in which he is a partner.

The security scheme was placed at the disposal of the racketeer by a ranking judicial police officer on November 24, 2010, on the eve of the invasion of the Complexo do Alemão. Wiretaps show that  Haylton was afraid that his auto agency would be targeted by rivals in the “nickel-hunter” gambling machine racket.

The intimate ties between Piruinha and state police may explain the fact that Haylton remains at large. He was one of 22 persons ordred arrested by a Federal court in October, when the federals kicked off Black Ops.

GLOBO has had access to excerpts of the wiretaps in which Piruinha’s son discusses the transfer of vehicles with Fábio Dutra Souza, his partner in the business, located on the Avenida Ministro Ivan Lins.

We, The Wise Guys

Returning to the most recent report by O Globo, and the letter leaked to it.

The author of the letter, dated 29 de setembro de 2011, begins by apologizing for pestering the LIESA president, then suggests that  Castanheira is fully aware of the rules imposed by the senior leadership of the bicho rackets of Rio.  “You and the other racketeers, with the exception of José Escafura, who for years now has not respected or enforced the rules of the mafia to which he belongs …”

Bills Were Paid by Bicho Bankers?

This was not the only connection to the bicho racket uncovered by police. During the same operation, police internal affairs, which visited another 13 addresses, discovered seven electricity bills in the name of Castanheira at a bicho operations center belonging to «Captain Guimarães». The discovery suggests that the LIESA president had his bills paid by the Captain.

Sought for comment by GLOBO, Jorge Castanheira denied any involvement with the bicho rackets and said he knows nothing about the letter discovered by police. He also denies that his electricity bills were paid for by “Captain” Guimarães.

— This proceeding is confidential. I have not had access to its content, but the press has. I cannot understand it. I have no ties to the bicho bankers. Today, I am president of LIESA, but for the last 28 years I have worked [as a general assistant]. During those years, I received a degree in economics. I receive hundreds of letters as president of LIESA, but none of them have anything to do with the bicho racket. I have nothing to do with any criminal conspiracy and I don’t know whose electricity bills these are.

Castanheira added that the only electricity bills on which his name appears are related to the offices occupied by LIESA from 1987 to 1995. Regarding the hiring of police to provide security, he said he had asked MJC to give preferential treatment to reserve officers.

Rule Applies to Police Reserves as Well

Despite what Castanheira says, reserve officers of the military police are not exempt from the disciplinary provisions of Decree 6579/83 …  According to this rule, military police must respect the police hierarchy both as current and off-duty or reserve police agents. Thus, Beltrame’s decree applies to retired PMs as well.

The public safety secretary said that it is looking into the irregular provision of services by its personnel during Carnaval. In a note, the department said that since 2008, more than 1,393 state judicial and military police have been expelled by the three internal affairs departments … for various misdeeds.

Finger of God II grew out of an analysis of data obtained during Finger of God I in December 2011. During the second phase, starting on 31 January 2012, the police applied for arrest warrants for bicho bankers Capitão Guimarães and Luiz Pacheco Drumond, aka Luizinho Drumond, both of them former  Liesa presidents.

Their warrant applications were not granted, however.

LIESA, The Untouchable Monopoly

Why not? This is the question that demands an answer when it comes to understanding how for nearly 18 years LIESA has dominated Carnaval in Rio from start to finish, from lighting to ticket sales, from the sound system to every other aspect of the festivities.

Including broadcast rights, which LIESA has ceded to the Globo network despite the best efforts of the state legislature to put an end to its rein.

Bicho + Globo + LIESA = RICO?

I posted a note on that general topic in 2007.

• Rio: “Why Does Globo Monopolize Carnival?”

Historically linked to the bicho numbers racket, LIESA has monopolized the organized Carnaval celebration since 1995. Year in and year out, promises of a competitive public auction have failed to pan out.

Rio mayor Eduardo Paes scheduled such an auction on various occasions and succeeded in conducting one for 2010, but the proposal as passed failed to meet certain requirements of the TCM, the city accounting tribunal.

This year, as I noted recently, TCM justices lost their free access to a Sambadrome sky box on the grounds that the justices should not be benefiting from a contract on which they will eventually have to pronounce judgment.

Unlike what the bicho bankers claimed, the terms as stated were not valid; the auction would have to be redone, but there was not enough time left. Thus did Carnaval 2011 fall back into the hands of LIESA.

Last year, alleging lack of competition in the auction for Carnaval 2009, a Rio court froze the assets of former mayor  Cesar Maia, who hired LIESA R$ 5.3 million.

And therein lies another tale.

Abril Wises Up | Educational Content Consolidates

Source: Fusões & Aquisições. Thanks for your careful and consistent coverage.

Abril Educação buys Wise Up for R$ 877 million

The value of the deal, which will be paid off in parcels, may be modified according to revenues reflected in the language school’s next earnings report.

Abril Educação today announced the acquisition of the English language school Wise Up in a deal valued at R$ 877 million. The deal will be paid off in three installments and could be subject to renegotiation depending on the 2012 EBITDA of Wise Up. Cash flow and net debt might also affect the value of the deal between now and the signing date.

Founded in 1995, Wise Up has  76,000 students at 338 franchise schools in 89 Brazilian cities.

I make that out to be R$ 11,540 to acquire a student.

Wise Up is an official English-language education supplier for the upcoming World Cup.

Above, Abril’s timeline for its accelerating acquisitive phase, starting in 2010.

Abril Educação comprises the Ática and Scipione textbook publishing houses, the SER curriculum factory, and others.

According to its Formulário de Referência 2012, the company,

in 2009 reached the broadest audience in the Brazilian education market in terms of students served, according to the Ministry of Education. We estimate that 71% of Brazilian students and more than 63% of elementary schools make use of our services or teaching materials. Our brands are recognized in all the markets we occupy. Our businesses have diverse sources of revenue which complement one another, creating synergies and capable of attending to all the needs of the elementary school and pre-university education cycle. We currently operate in five markets and are preparing an entry into two others …

The new businesses are prep courses for civil servant exams and the application of distance-education to language learning, a commitment born out by this recent bit of news. .

That 71% cannot be healthy for the Brazilian culture industry and educational policy.  71% plus vertical integration is why I tend to think of Abril as a tropical zaibatsu wannabe.

Abril has been in acquisitive mode for some time now. I have not run the numbers yet, partly because there are no precise numbers to be had. Even so, the financial grandiloquence of this deal ought to give us some inkling of the financial health and creditworthiness of the Grupo Abril in general.

The British network also has 36 units on deep sea oil rigs and another 21 schools located in four inland cities.

The deal is April’s third advance on the language-learning market. Last July, it purchased 51% of Red Balloon, geared toward children, at R$ 29.8 million. Abril also owns  6% of Livemocha, a U.S. distance-learning language franchise.

In a Material Event announcement to the market, Abril Educação says, “We have many other businesses in various educational markets, covering 4,500 Brazilian cities. There exist a number of synergies between these companies and Wise Up, whose shareholders will profit from the deal.  Abril also said that the deal signed with Wise Up calls for the medium and long-term retention of Wise Up senior management.

I wonder: Would this deal make rumors of an Abril IPO more or less likely? Relatório Reservado reports:

Abril Educação is preparing a follow-on offering on the Bovespa. It is said to be awaiting an improvement, however modest, in the international markets. But we have heard this song before. Contacted, the company had no comment.

Abril is extremely, aggressively competitive in this area of its business. A memorable example was the smear campaign conducted against a competing publishing house — up for the same public tender as Abril — for the provision of text books.

The group’s flagship weekly, Veja, screamed bloody murder, calling the rival publisher a purveyor of communist indoctrination and accusing the education ministry of practicing North Korean brainwashing techniques. I shit you not. Never underestimate the power of «moral panic» marketing.

In general, I wonder whether mass-market publishing or education figures larger in the group’s bottom line. AE and a couple of other subsidiaries are listed, but the Group is not.

According to the Web site of the Editora Brazil, the magazine publishing arm of the business produces 192 million copies of 52 titles a year, with 28 million readers and 5 million subscribers.  If you are not planning to read it, please deposit in the proper recycling bin …

The two flagship educational houses, Àtica e Scipione, sold 53.2 million books to the public sector and 6.5 million to the private sector in 2011, according to company financials.

Brasília | Oligopolies Under Observation in 2013

Oligopolies in the Media Market

Source: Folha de S. Paulo | Brasilianas.Org.
By: Vladimir Safatle
Translation: C. Brayton

In recent weeks, Argentina made fresh headlines in Brazil with stories on clashes over the enforcement of Argentina’s so-called “Media Law,” which defines a new regulatory order for companies in the news and entertainment sectors.

Some of these new provisions, and especially those related to combating monopolies, have been viewed as signs of a vengeful State intent on limiting freedom of expression, as in the case of the archrivalry between President Kirchner and the Clarín group.

Leaving aside these heated public conflicts, however, the Argentines are engaged in an important debate that deserves to be treated more dispassionately. It seeks an answer to the question: “Do we or do we not need laws that restrict the concentration of ownership in the media sector?” That is to say, can we successfully argue that concentrated media ownership does not necessarily affect democratic practices?

At this juncture, it is worthwhile remembering that the global media market is currently among the most oligopolized in the world.

What is more, as we gather from  reading between the lines of the recent case involving Rupert Murdoch, this state of affairs really does affect our political life.

Murdoch built an empire of TV stations, newspapers, magazines, radio stations, book publishers, movie theater chains, and Internet portals that gave him the ability to mold debate, pressure governments and interfere in politics to the extent that it promised the American general  David Petraeus its unlimited support should he choose to run for U.S. president.

Situations like this are not exclusive to the Anglo-Saxon world, however. Recent decades have witnessed a brutal, highly negative trend toward consolidation of the sector that affects not only our politics but also our culture.

A single group like Time Warner, for example, exercises simultaneous control over production, distribution and development of new techniques. In this case, we are justified in saying that laws barring the formation of oligopolies is a way for society to defend itself against the coerced uniformity of opinion and the silencing of alternative voices.

Opponents of this viewpoint might reply that a more fragmented market would leave media companies more vulnerable to government pressure. This argument is not without merit.

The solution to this aspect of the problem, however, is not the perpetuation of the other aspect. Strategies are needed in order to prevent governments from framing the news according to their own interests.

In Brazil, this would imply limiting government influence by drastically cutting spending on government advertising — which should be confined to public service announcements — and enforcing laws such as the ban on politicians owning media outlets. Clear and absolutely fair criteria for the use of publicity budgets by state-owned firms should be developed.

São Paulo’s state-owned and publicly traded Sabesp might make an interesting case in point. It frequently walks the corda bamba between public service announcements and government propaganda, as is “this is your current government at work for you.”

But this could be an artifact of my own subjective impression as a couch potato. This might make a good little feature article to research.

Where are all the Sabesp TV spots stored? What PR techniques do they apply? Do they amount to the use of public money to promote a specific administration?

Anyway, I have always thought that the «monthly payola» cases should be combined and subjected to a parliamentary commission of inquiry — CPI — of the PR industry at the heart of these and other scandals.

After all, the exact same mechanism was used in several of these cases: Publicity services were contracted by a state or municipal government for a given cultural or sporting event — Rock in Rio, an Enduro motorcycle event in Minas Gerais — and then publicity fees were accounted for as having been paid to fictional or purpose-built Potemkin village PR outsourcers.

In fact, however, most of these PR funds were skimmed off for use by political and private parties. Enter the hidden camera video of political operators stuffing their socks and jocks with bundles of cash and you have yourself a classic Brazilian “mountain of money” scandal.

In any event, big PR has a demonstrated capacity for financial legerdemain — think of Duda Mendonça as well as Marcos Valério. Perhaps the second most common source of laundered campaign money: state-owned companies like Furnas in Minas Gerais.

The Vanguard of the Obsolete

Gilberto Maringoni e Verena Glass of the IPEA provide a detailed historical narrative of media law development in Latin America, explaining why regulation produced in the 1930s-1960s no longer applies.

Another factor that could not have been anticipated was the invention of digital technology and the deterritorialization of media companies through the use of virtual networks.

Before the digital revolution (1980- 90) news organizations had to be located in the country where they operated. This was not merely an arbitrary legal requirement, based on nationalist developmentalism. At this time, the entire network of businesses, and especially in the advertising sector and media finance, was anchored in calmer waters.

Now, however, an ISP, Web portal or cable TV provider can transmit content from any part of the world, without having to use antennae or sophisticated broadcast equipment.

The main problem is that the ISPs and cable operators are not classifiable as content and information producers as defined by the current, outmoded legislation.

The privatization of Latin American telecoms in the 1980s-90s, opened up a veritable  Pandora’s box. State-owned telephone monopolies were auctioned off. It may be that the authorities who sponsored this policy were blind to the about-face that would make possible a state of borderless media convergence.

Telephone operators, for example, which during the 1990s were limited to long distance voice communication, underwent a consolidation that two decades later would turn them into the biggest Internet providers in Brazil and arm them with the same political firepower as any traditional TV network.

As things stand, TV, radio, telephone, film, literature, music, data transmission, navigation data and many other services can be tapped using nothing more than a single smartphone.  Each of these functions, however, must still comply with rules specific to its sector.

ISPs use technology to produce and distribute content. To the extent that they are not subject to the old legal norms, their content can be produced anywhere in the world and transmitted to any other, with adjustments made for local characteristics [such as  language].

At the same time, now that global media maintains offices in many different countries, a complex series of loopholes in current local laws has been used to legitimate the local operation.

From the same symposium,, Denis de Moraes:

Brazil is in the  vanguard of obsolescence [sic] in terms of its regulation of the media. Its radio and TV regulator remains one of the most outmoded in Latin America. To date, the congress has made no progress toward regulating Articles 220 and 221 of the 1988 Constitution, which respectively ban monopolies in the mass media and gives preferential treatment to TV and radio stations “serving education, artistic, cultural and informative ends,” as well as “the promotion of national and regional culture and a plan of stimuli to independent productions who qualify. .The lack of action by successive governments in this area is just plain alarming.

Media a Priority for 2013

The president of the ruling PT has said that political reform and media regulation are the top priorities of this year’s Congress. The quote is from November of last year.

Rui Falcão said his party has at least two goals for 2013: A new regulatory framework for the media and political reform.

The party will begin to execute its strategy — calling on the federal president to issue a bill that regulates the media —  the party will include the issue in its agenda for the meeting of the national leadership.

Last week, Falcão told the international press that he hopes the presidency will send down a bill regulating communications in Brazil. “It is not our party that wants to pass enabling legislation for these provisions of the Constitution, it is the congress as a whole. We hope that our government will send down a bill establishing a regulatory framework that will increase freedom of expression and eliminate any possibility of censorship of the established media, regulating provisions in the Constitution that have yet to get off the drawing board.”

Rio | An Anti-Militia Plan For Vanistan

Source: Jornal do Brasil
Translation: C. Brayton

Van drivers from the Rio da Prata van service collective held a message on December 21 in Bangu, Rio de Janeiro, to discuss ways to cope with threats from militia groups.

Although part of the informal economy, the van services have made clever use of Google Sites to keep riders up to date on routes and schedules. Van services have been singled out as a priority by the state government, which seeks to facilitate the legalization of drivers and cooperatives.

Since Saturday, December 14, armed men have begun charging van drivers R$200 a week [sic], threatening to burn their vehicles if the tax is not paid. The extortion scheme is taking place in the Santa Cruz and Sepetiba neighborhoods.

The beachfront Sepetiba was the scene of a raid on the leader of a militia organization — a retired military police trooper — in July 2012. During the investigations, a clandestine cemetery was found and a cheesy but menacing cobra head sword was seized from the leader of the group — see the video, above.

Santa Cruz has been similarly targeted.

Veja and the Virginity Auction

We are all prostitutes
Everybody has their price …
– The Pop Group

Source:  Lux | Portugal

Catarina Migliorini, the young Brazilian woman who became widely known for the «quasi-unprecedented» auctioning of her virginity, is on the cover of Editora Abril’s Playboy Brasil, January edition.

Catarina’s virginity was auctioned off to a Japanese bidder for $780,000, or about €591,000.

The contract must withstand judicial review before being consummated. According to Catarina, the deal  with the Japanese man is for the act to occur aboard an aircraft, during a private flight.

The young girl achieved such notoriety during the auction that she plans to film a documentary on the subject in Australia.

Feminist-libertarian blogger Cynthia Semíramis offers a close reading of the publicity stunt and its gender-political ramifications.

It is curious to observe how Veja, a bastion of capitalism and the free market, changes course when a woman decides to sell her virginity — as is her right! — in a process that is strictly capitalist in nature.

Expecting Veja to navigate according to any steady moral compass at all is poor political and cultural seamanship.

What I personally found curious was the double use made of the episode by Veja and its sister publication Playboy Brasil.

Is everything for sale? Votes? Political support? Citizenship? Justice? Blood? Kidneys? Babies?

The Veja cover — above — uses the case to promote a classic moral panic

Our barcoded Jezebel is framed as an allegory for money changers in the temple and the 30 pieces of silver and all the other elements of a sense of diffuse and pervasive moral decay: cultural, political, economic, religious. She is the muse of the «mensalão» — the money-laundering slush fund scandals affecting both government and opposition.

Those who start the panic when they fear a threat to prevailing social or cultural values are known by researchers as moral entrepreneurs, while people who supposedly threaten the social order have been described as “folk devils”. –Wikipedia

This commonplace theme is frequently found in the writings of Globo columnist Arnaldo Jabor, author of Pornopolitica. It is, in fact, Jabor’s one-note samba.

I have used up all the scale I know
and in the end I find
I’ve come to nothing, or nearly nothing

There is a long tradition of moral panic journalism over the past century in the Brazilian press — including the most tragic  moral entrepreneur of them all, Carlos Lacerda.

Take a trivial example: a comment on the Web site of the opposition-learning Consultor Jurídico regarding a recent influence peddling charge involving second- and third-echelon officials of  the federal presidency.

The big lie is one of the cardinal sins that make up the molecular structure of this gang of thieves, bums and scam artists that compose the PT and its “allied base” — the latter made up of measly little political prostitution rings who parade their wares in the public square.

Some enterprising rhetoric grad student should attempt some day a critical history of Brazilian indignation.

Paperback Writer & The Bearback Rider

The image of Catarina straddling a large white teddy bear borders on the pedophiliac.

The cover shot betrays the widely documented and typical preference of the Brazilian gentleman reader for the bunda rather than the breasts.

Nothing could be more distinct than the conceptual framing of the two covers.

The Playboy Catarina takes us on an innocent romp through the nursery  and extends to Elvis the invitation he sang about:

Let me be your teddy bear

I have not much time to bring to bear on the topic at the moment, but it would be interesting to compare the case of Catarina with that of Mônica Velloso, the political marketer and ex-Globo journalist who, during her long-term affair with a federal senator, secretly taped their pillow tall, in a scandal that led to the senator’s stepping down from the presidency of the Senate.

«Diogo Mainardi: All politicians are bums to some degree»

A curious set of synergies were at work in that case.

After Mônica and her lawyer negotiated an exclusive interview with Veja — Mystery woman reveals all! – the same lawyer negotiated the fee for her appearance in the altogether — Mystery woman reveals all! — in Playboy, a sister publication to Veja.

The centerfold ran with an exclusive interview of Veja columnist and noted moral entrepreneur Diogo Mainardi, above.

It should probably come as no surprise, of course, that different magazines targeting different readerships would differ in their overall orientation and editorial line. It should probably not come as a surprise, by the same token, that Abril magazines engage in editorial synergies when they want or need to.

The degree of centralization and cross-promotion in content production at Abril would be an interesting factoid to have on  hand.

Remembering Fawn

Finally, the case is of a certain historical interest to note the parallels with the Fawn Hall scandal — the former secretary was named a sex star of 1987 — [*] named  during the Iran-Contra hearings.

Catarina signs a contract at the offices of the Abril group. Source: Veja.com

Opus Dei & The Mistress of Lula

PCdoB journalist Altamiro Borges complains of a disinformation scheme designed to spread false rumors about the former Brazilian president.

Borges is probably right: the digital strategy and the rhetorical tactics in play here are similar to those used by Vlademiro Montesino and J. J. Rendón to assassinate the character of targeted adversaries in Peru and Colombia, respectively.

It gets so that you can start to recognize campaigns of this kind by recognizing its playbook..

In an article published on December 10 in the Estado de S. Paulo, journalist and consultant Carlos Alberto Di Franco, a founder and senior leader of the fascist sect Opus Dei in Brasil, reinforces arguments in favor of the recent crusade against ex-President Lula.

In doing so, he does not hesitate for a single moment to use arguments of a moral nature — the typical ploy of phony moralists.

In his editorial, which calls for an end to the privacy of public figures, di Franco states that it can no longer be concealed that Rosemary Noronha, former chief of staff of the presidency in São Paulo, was ”Lula’s lover.”

Facts not in evidence. There is actually very little coverage of the fact assumed but not in evidence here: That a long-time Lula aide and the ex-president were romantically involved.

The Estado had written a leak-based story about

• E-mails demonstrate proximity of Lula to aide

   

The ESP does not, however, draw a single conclusion about the nature of the relationship between the two. It writes,

The federal police recorded  122 phone calls between the ex-president and Rose between March  2011 and October 201, according to a story reported by the daily Metro. There were 5 such calls a day on average.

Based on a quick googled tour through the turbulent waters of this meme, the impetus of the rumor appears comes from heavy, SEO-enhanced blogging by the likes of Veja. Augusto Nunes leads the way.

Di Franco relies on such sources to reason consistently as though the love-affair trope were established fact:

Frequently insinuated in the press coverage of the case, the love affair between  Rosemary Nóvoa de Noronha, former presidential chief of staff for São Paulo, and her former boss,  Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has finally been brought out into the open in a recent edition of the Folha de S.Paulo: «Aide’s power flowed from initimate relation with Lula», ran the front-page headline.

Journalist Suzana Singer, ombudsman of the Folha, provided a fitting analysis  of the case: While avoiding the term “lover,” the Folha reported on the 23 international events in which Rosemary accompanied Lula, whose wife never came along. According to the Folha, a special scheme was in place that gave Rose access to the presidential suite during these visits. It was a relationship going back 19 years, to when  she was a bank union member and he a defeated presidential candidate. “Did the Folha invade the privacy of Lula? Yes. Did it need to? Yes.” I agree whole-heartedly with Suzana’s analysis.

Not entirely. Singer recommends giving the story its proper weight and notes that the facts assumed as evidence by Di Franco are unproven. She writes:

The work is not finished yet. It was relevant to show the reader where Rosemary acquired her influence, but from here on out, bedroom episodes, tempting as they are, and not interesting any longer.

What matters is to investigate whether Lula was involved in an alleged influence-peddling scheme created by his aide.

If nothing is found, it is time to let the small fish go … and focus attention on the major companies investigated in the Porto Seguro case. As Deep Throat advised to Woodstein, “Follow the money.”

Unlike U.S. papers, for example, the Brazilian press tends to spare the private life of public personalities. The hijinks of ex-presidents Juscelino Kubitschek and João Figueiredo were well-known and often discussed among journalists of the day,

The same might be said of the press in its relation to  Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who had a son out of wedlock. The media knew about the affair but chose to remain silent. The incident was reported by the Folha de S.Paulo when Cardoso, now a widower and ex-president, recognized the boy as his own. Such episodes can therefore be “interesting” to the public — they awaken curiosity — without speaking to “the public interest.” Public funds were not involved.   All of these episode could be considered “interesting” to the public — they provoke curiosity — but not necessarily “in the public interest.”

The Lula case is quite different. Polícia Federal say that Rosemary was able, among other things, to place corrupt friends in the federal government and that these friends sold technical certifications and legal opinions favorable to certain business owners.

While still president, Lula — although he may not have been aware of the fact –afforded favors to the group led by Rose, who used her influence to name the brothers Paulo and Rubens Vieira to direct the National Water Agency  (ANA) the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC). Once inside the government, the brothers sold favors to business owners whose fate depended on federal action.

Rose, boasting of her intimate relation with Lula, exerted  influence over the Banco do Brasil (BB). She lobbied for the appointment of BB CEO Aldemir Bendine and nominated bank directors.

How was it possible for the former PT secretary to accumulate such power, to the point of touching upon such extremely sensitive questions?  All of this is unquestionably a matter of public interest, and received the proper profile thanks to the work of the press.

These facts alone would be sufficient to invade the privacy of ex-president Lula. The right to privacy cannot be used to impeded a criminal investigation and the publication of facts of significant public interest. …

Di Franco goes on — and on, and on — to compare the current state of  Brazilian journalism with the Republican ideas of Rui Barbosa.  I skip over that part.

The ideas of Rui Barbosa and the current customs of Brazilian public life could not be farther apart. Important journalistic information is often considered abusive or absurd. … public figures invoke the right to privacy as a means to escape from public scrutiny, but as I see it, that right is not absolute. … Aspects of private life affecting the public interest in a prominent figure should not be censored on grounds of right to privacy.

But  should they not be banned from publication for being untrue or unproven? I want to hear genuine pillow talk between Lula and Rose before I buy into this cockeyed theory.

There can be no schizophrenia between private and public life. Actions performed  in private may be predictors of conduct in the public sphere. The reader and the voter have the right to know what these are. …  And there is private information  – the  Rose-Lula love affair is is emblematic — involving both private and public information. The press has not only the right but the duty to invade the private life of the public man. It is a clear case of the public interest.

Borges saves his big guns for the alleged influence of Opus Dei over the current scandal. It is a fact, on the record, that di Franco is an Opus Dei prelate and spiritual adviser to the S. Paulo state governor, Alckmin.

The leader of this shadowy sect believes Lula should have his personal life completely open to the media.  …

 Now that he is so concerned with transparency, the Opus Dei leader might agree to reveal its own masochistic and medieval practices, and who among politicians, judges and journalists are its members. What sort of masses are said in the Governor’s Palace with  Geraldo Alckmin? How did this organization participate in the 1964 coup? As di Franco himself says, “there is information on private life that demonstrate a direct relationship between the public and the private.

7D | A Mexican Standoff?

On 7D, nothing will happen

Argentine media group Clarín announces a stay of execution.

It says it will not be required to comply with the 2009 Ley dos Medios until all appeals have been exhausted.

As soon as [the court] extended the stay in the case challenging the constitutionality of certain provisions of the media law, Clarín issued the following statement:

The Grupo Clarín has just been informed that the injunction has been extended until a definitive ruling on the constitutionality of provisions of the Media Law  has been arrived at.

As it has throughout the process,  Grupo Clarín will follow the law, respecting the Constitution, the law, and the findings of the courts.

Eric Nepomuceno of Brazil’s Observatório da Imprensa summarizes the case, below.

As it happens, and contrary to the image of a deeply polarized debate, there is internal disagreement among shareholders in the Clarín group over compliance — I will translate that, too. But first,

Kassab to Haddad | Meet the New Boss

With the impending changing of the guard, São Paulo will be undergoing some interesting changes — or else not undergoing them, if opposition parties can filibuster them out of existence.

In any event, it is shaping up as a concerted effort to decentralize city management and planning after a period in which the PSDB-DEM took the opposite approach.

I do not pretend to be an expert on local politics — and how — but it is hard to mistake the political implications of newsflow from the business section

Take the refusal of CESP — a major Bovespa-listed generator with historic ties to the PSDB  – to renegotiate its concession with the federal government. As a result the feds may not achieve the price savings they promised to deliver.

There was an attempt to privatize the company in 2001 — rolling blackouts in the national grid caused the transaction to be dropped —  followed by an IPO in 2006:

On 28 June 2006, the Colombian  Interconexión Eléctrica S.A. acquired  50,.1% of the shares held at the time by the São Paulo state government  – a sum equivalent to 21% of the market value of CTEEP, the private concession-holder for the state’s transmission requirements.

But I digress — that bane of the blogging mind. My train of thought is that the opposing tendencies — centralization and decentralization — will provoke legislative conflict. There is a São Paulo which recently called for federal aid in the war on crime and there is an industrial São Paulo driven by the free market in real estate and tickled pink about lower energy prices …

Source: Viomundo.