Back to the Stone Age | Globo Targeted by Vandalism

The pump don’t work because the vandals took the handles …

Source: Terra Brasil

Two demonstrations tied up traffic in the Southern Zone of Rio yesterday afternoon. The first took place near the official residence of Governor Cabral … During the second, residents of the Rocinha slum, in  Gávea, protested the disappearance of an area resident. A group of 100 demonstrators, according to police, managed to block the Lagoa-Barra connection for several minutes.

The protesters then marched on Leblon, where they joined up with the protesters at the governor’s mansion. The military police said some 700 peaceful demonstrators were on hand. Traffic was complicated for motorists heading for Barra da Tijuca and Recreio dos Bandeirantes, due to the blockade of Delfim Moreira Avenue.

Governor Sérgio Cabral, through his press spokesperson, issued a release on the situation. “The opposition wants to accelerate elections by creating problems of governability. The governor, legitimately elected by 67% of voters in the last election, reiterates his commitment to maintaining Rio de Janeiro on the road to social and economic development. ”

After leaving the mansion, the group marched through the streets of Leblon.

Along the way, group members threw  stones at an administrative building of the Globo network. Molotov cocktails were launched and the doorway to the building was broken into. Security guards doused members of the group who attempted to enter with fire extinguishers. A car belonging to the  SBT network was graffiti-bombed.

Along with the damages to Globo and SBT property, buses were spray-painted with the slogan “Down With Cabral.” A sign advertising the World Youth Day gathering was burned on Mario Ribeiro Street, in Gávea.

Police did not follow the group and no repressive actions were taken as the violence began. Around 10:45 p.m., however, a confrontation began. Demonstrators climbed a barricade and attacked military police on Cabral Street and General San Martin Avenue with stones and mortars. The PM fired back with tear gas bombs, but remained in Cabral Street without advancing.

Police Blotter | Operation Drugstore Cowboy

Source:  Estado de S. Paulo/ Portal ClippingMP.

In 2007, as Colombian drug kingpin Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia was being busted by Brazilian Federal Police, he gave some memorable quote, to the effect that “If you want to shut down drug trafficking in this state, the first thing you need to do is get rid of Denarc.”

Denarc, the state narcotics  division, reinforced a certain reputation for criminal savagery during the case. It was reported that several police officers had offered to leave Juan Carlos be in his Alphaville condominium in exchange for a periodic fee …

And now for something not completely different  …

Seven state judicial police were detained during an investigation into an extortion scheme  involving drug traffickers, as well as the leaking of police cases.

Six of the officers, among them two senior detectives, worked for Denarc, the antidrug squad. The men are accused of receiving a monthly stipend of R$ 30,000.

Largest raid since 1987. Another  3 arrests took place in Ribeirão Preto and Campinas,where wiretaps were used to found the allegations.

After the operation, which constituted the largest anticorruption probe since 1987, the Secretary of Public Safety said that Denarc would be reformed.

Two of the policemen arrested were senior officials: The supervisor of the Investigations Unit, Clemente Castilhone Junior, and  Fábio Amaral de Alcântara, of the 3rd Support Precinct.

13 arrest warrants were issued for state police officers – 11 in São Paulo and 2 in Campinas, where the investigation began, based on wiretaps of drug traffickers requested by GAECO – the anti-organized crime unit – from the public prosecutor.

Prosecutor Amauri Silveira Junior, who works for Gaeco in Campinas, said that “the action of certain policemen” made it impossible  for his office to do its job. “There was an attempt to forge evidence and to coopt and coerce victims and witnesses. For that reason, we asked for temporary incarceration. “

According to Silveira, the case has suffered from leaks since the beginning. He did not, however, confirm that Castilhone or any of his subordinates were involved in passing police intel to criminals. “On this point, the court will have to decided.” He did say, however, that there were signs of involvement by other police , and new investigations will be launched.

During the operation, supported by police internal affairs, 8 prosecutors spent four hours analyzing documents at Denarc, in search of evidence. According to the prosecutor, policemn received bribes for leaking information or obstructing investigations. Among the crimes investigated are robbery, extortion, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, and active and passive corruptionEntre os crimes investigados estão rou¬bo, extorsão mediante seques¬tro, formação de quadrilha, corrupção ativa e passiva e tortura.

Maurício Blazeck says that Denarc will undergo a renovation, “not just because of cases like this”,but because it is “a department that has operated  for 25 years.” One idea is to streamline the number of agents. Internal affairs would not discuss details, but did say that certain suspects already face disciplinary action or criminal charges, which have yet to lead to a definitive verdict.

The investigation began in October, targeting traffickers related to the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) inCampinas. Prosecutors say that a woman suspected of trafficking gave evidence against the scheme. In the mean time, the prosecutor gathered more evidence from wiretaps which captured conversations of the kidnapper  Wanderson Nil¬ton de Paula Lima, o Andinho, in prison since 2002 but still in command.

Criminals in Campinas, led by Andinho, allegedly had to pay R$ 300,000 for police to cover up operations and leak information. The police also received up to R$30,000 a month each.  The situation grew tense when a bribe payment was late and the police pressured relatives of the bandits for the sum.

One of the ramifications of yesterday’s operation is the occuption of shantytown barracks in the region. Two persons were arrested: an adolescent and his mother, accused of trafficking after the police found marijuana at their house. Another person was taken into custody in Serra. One of the accused reportedly made a successful escape.

Castilhone’s lawyer, João Batista Augusto Júnior, calls the arrest of his client “arbitrary,” but has not yet studied the case. Family members say he suspected that investigations were underway, but did not imagine he would be arrested.

Castilhone has a reputation of being the right hand man of De¬narc director Marco Antônio de Paula Santos, who accompanied the case yesterday, but said that only Internal Affairs could comment on the incident. “I knew nothing about it. “

X-Men: OGX Awaits The Malaysians

 

The saga of Eike Batista continues as market experts debate the long and short of whether  the Brazilian entrepreneur’s X Group and its flagship OGX oil and gas division will survive, and in what form.

Bloomberg, meanwhile, reports on a regulatory matter may complicate the situation even more:

Brazil’s securities regulator started an investigation into billionaire Eike Batista’s OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA after a minority investor lodged a complaint over alleged insider trading.

The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, known as CVM, opened the review after a request by OGX individual investor Rafael Ferri, according to a statement on the regulator’s website dated today. The complaint relates to Batista’s sale of 126.7 million OGX shares between May and June before the company scrapped projects and warned it may stop pumping crude next year, Ferri said in an e-mailed statement.

A case to watch.

Political Reform | Plebiscite or Referendum?

BRASÍLIA, 17 Jul (Reuters) – President Dilma Rousseff was insistent today in her defense of a plebiscite to establish the foundations of a political reform, pointing to recent opinion polls that show support for her proposal to change the rules of Brazilian politics.

“When it comes to political reform, I believe it is fundamental to base this reform on a popular consultation,” the President said during a meeting commemorating the first decade of CDES, the Council on Economic and Social Development.

Dilma is defending the plebiscite at a moment when the national congress is working to establish its own internal norms for reform, which would only be submitted to a popular referendum after it was passed by Congress.

The federal government defends a plebiscite in which the voters are asked beforehand what points should be included in the reform, which only then would be voted on by Congress, based on the results of the popular consultation.

“We have proposed that the people be consulted by means of a plebiscite in which in which present conditions are defined and a debate is opened. In our view, in my new, in the view of my government … and I have seen the polls according to which this popular manifestation is key to effectively satisfying the deep-seated desires expressed by the demonstrations,” she added.

Recent polls, such as the Datafolha published at the end of last month and the MDA Institute poll conducted for the CNT – the National Transportation Confederation – show that 68% favor the government’s call for a plebiscite on the results of which political reform would be based.

These same polls point to a significant decline – more than 20% — in support for the government and in the popularity of the president since the wave of protests that saw 1 million Brazilians take to the streets in a single day last month.

In late June, after a series of protests in various cities, Dilma proposed five promises to all state and major city governments, among them a plebiscite autorizing a “constitutive process” for political reform.

Later, the government abandoned the idea of a constituent assembly specifically focused on the topic of political reform; in early July it sent Congress a proposal for a plebisccite to establish the fundamentals of political changes.