POLITICS-BRAZIL: Organised Crime Seeping into Government

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 22 1999 (IPS) - The level of organised crime’s penetration into the police, political and judicial systems of several Brazilian states raises fears that the country is “becoming another Colombia.”

The extent of criminal infiltration is evident in the findings of the Parliamentary Commission on drug trafficking, which decided Thursday to extend its inquiry until March. The Commission was originally scheduled to conclude its activities this November.

The Commission’s initial reports led to the dismantling of what had become a parallel power in Acre state, on Brazil’s border with Bolivia and Peru.

A group of police officers involved in drug and arms trafficking led a reign of terror over the local population after assassinating dozens of people. The group’s boss was identified as parliamentary representative Hildebrando Pascoal, who was relieved of his post last month and arrested in Brasilia, along with more than 20 suspects.

Pascoal’s successor, José Aleksandro, sworn in as representative on September 25, now also faces removal due to evidence of his involvement in several crimes.

Maranhao state, in Brazil’s northeast, will receive a visit next week by the Parliamentary Commission on drug trafficking to investigate claims that local organised crime is headed by another parliamentary representative, José Gerardo.

A local police chief, Stenio Mendonza, was assassinated in 1997 as he investigated a group that, in addition to being active in the drug trade, also hijacked heavy transport trucks.

Maranhao’s state governor, Roseana Sarney, daughter of former president José Sarney (1985-1990), reported that she has received several death threats. Other witnesses who will testify before the Parliamentary Commission will have their identities hidden due to threats against their lives.

Crime bosses in Maranhao are connected with those in Acre and other states, according to truck driver Jorge Meres de Almeida. He confessed to the Commission that he had worked for the group, which he portrayed as a widespread national network.

Meres also fingered another crime boss – parliamentary representative Augusto Farías. His brother, Paulo César Farías, was Brazil’s treasury minister who ran a corruption scheme between 1990 and 1992, under the government of former president Fernando Collor de Mello.

The Farías family is from Alagoas state, also in the northeast, a region known for political violence. Paulo César Farías was assassinated three years ago. His brother, Augusto, is suspected of having ordered the murder.

Stealing trucks in Brazil to exchange them for drugs and weapons in Bolivia was the focus of the gang active in Maranhao and Sao Paulo, revealed the trucker.

In Piauí, another northeastern state, the Commission, through other channels, uncovered a crime organisation dedicated to the corruption and extortion of the region’s municipal governments. The group is suspected in the assassinations of eight mayors in the last 10 years and death threats against at least 15 more.

The group’s alleged leader is retired Military Police colonel, José Viriato Correia Lima, who is being held by authorities while investigations are underway. A warrant for Correia Lima’s arrest was issued after wire taps recorded him discussing his illegal activities on the telephone.

Attorney Nelson Nery, president of the Bar Association of Piauí, requested that the national government intervene to combat crime in his state, and that the Federal Police provide protection for those who have received death threats.

He fears that Brazil is “becoming another Colombia,” because organised crime is no longer limited to enclaves in Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo neighbourhoods, but is an extended network in several states.

Nery alluded to the penetration of drug trafficking in Colombia’s government branches and its influence throughout Colombian territory, which was manifest in the extreme violence of the late 1980s.

Another Parliamentary Commission, which investigates irregularities in Brazil’s judicial branch, obtained extensive information on the drug trade’s influence over judges in at least two border states – Mato Grosso and Amazonas. Many drug traffickers in the two states have walked free due to such connections.