The Federal Police and the Revenue Agency arrested today owners and directors of Schinchariol, a large industry in the beer and soft drinks sector; read more about Brazilian beer.

The operation happened simultaneously in 13 States. More than 60 people were arrested, including several members of family Schinchariol who held positions of the board of the company.

Police and Tax Auditors say that the company was dodging more than R$ 600 million per year in taxes. This was the largest case of tax evasion ever uncovered in Brazil.

Tuesday, June 14th, Brasilia stopped to listen to Roberto Jefferson, who spoke before the Comission of Ethics of the Deputies Chamber. This Comission is composed only by Deputies, who judge the conduct of Deputies who may have acted unethically; this Comission is a step towards lost of mandate. The Comission of Ethics does not preclude the work of a Probing Comission.

Jefferson repeated all the declarations he had given to the press a few days before. He declared that Delubio Soares, cashier of the Worker´s Party, was paying cash to leaders of some Parties (namely, PP and PL) to obtain political support. Even under extrem pressure, Jefferson didn´t flinch. He mentioned the names of politicians who he is certain to have received money, like Valdemar Costa Neto (President of Liberal Party) and Pedro Correia (leader of the Popular Party).
Jefferson repeated that a few important Ministers had been already communicated about the ilegal situation; among them, Finance Minister Palocci and Chief of Staff José Dirceu. Jefferson tried to make it clear, though, that President Lula was not aware of the situation, and, as soon as he learned about it, the payments stopped.

Jefferson came up with new charges: he said that the Worker´s Party agreed, in exchange for political support, with paying R$ 20 million to PTB (Jefferson´s Party); however, only R$ 4 millions were actually paid. Jefferson said that he and Genoino, President of PT, agreed in not declaring that money transfer to the Electoral Justice, as prescribed by the law.
Jefferson admitted so to being a criminal, but he also involved PT and Genoíno. Jefferson said he doesn´t want to defend himself or his mandate; all he wants is to protect his Party, PTB, from a conspiration which, according to him, was setup by the Government and the Press.

Lula won the elections in 2002, but his Party (PT) got only about 20% of seats in the Parliament; there were other Parties in the coalition which elected Lula (like PL, Party of the vice-President, and PC do B, the Brazilian Comunist Party), but those were small, and could not give majority in Parliament to Lula.
From the start, Lula seeked new Parties to join the government. Except for three Parties (PSDB, PFL and PDT), which remained in the opposition, all other Parties agreed in giving support and having participation in the government.
Two Parties are worthy mentioning: first, PMDB, the largest Brazilian Party. PMDB is very ample, not rightist or leftist; there are defenders of any ideology within the Party. Some defend full support to Lula, some defend immediate rupture. PMDB has, today, two important Ministers in the government: Communications and Social Security. Because PMDB is unpredictable, it was not enough to give majority in Parliament to Lula.

Then, Lula approached PTB. Despite being a Labour Party (founded by ex-President Getulio Vargas), PTB is known as the most fluid Brazilian Party. It was seen giving support to all Presidents, from Collor, then Itamar, then Fernando Henrique, now Lula.
PTB commited to support Lula, but wanted to have participation in the government. PTB was given only one Ministry, the Ministry of Tourism.
Seeing that PTB was fundamental for the Government to have majority in the Parliament, the President of PTB, Roberto Jefferson, demanded to appoint some people to key positions in the federal administration. Today, it is known that PTB appointed his affiliates to take positions in the Postal Service Company, the Electricity Federal Company, the Airports Administration Company, the Reinsurance Company, among others.

The big mess started three weeks ago, when Veja published a report about corruption in the Postal Service. A man was taped accepting bribery to facilitating a bidding. The man clearly mentioned the name of Roberto Jefferson, and said that the money he was receiving would be directed to PTB. According to him, an agreement was going on: PTB would appoint someone to a federal position, and this person would oblige to collect money to give to the Party.
The news set the government on fire. Jefferson denied, but the opposition wanted to create a Probing Comission. The government tried all means to stop the Comission (including, according to the news, using Finance Minister Antonio Palocci to release federal funds to Deputies who gave support to the government).
Over the past two weeks, more and more evidences that PTB setup a corruption scheme within the federal administration gained the headlines. The government could not stop the Probing Comission.

Then, last Monday, Jefferson came up with a bombastic denounce. About the reasons why he spoke, some say that he felt abandoned by the government, others say that he doesn´t want to take all the blame alone.
Jefferson said that the treasurer of the Worker´s Party, Delubio Soares, offered him to pay R$ 30K for each Deputy who voted unconditionally with the Government. Jefferson still said that two other Parties, PP and PL, had already accepted that offer. Worse still, Jefferson said that he had previously communicated the fact to several Ministers and to the President of the Republic, but nothing had happened.

The situation today: a Probing Comission was created to investigate corruption in the Postal Service; government wants to restrict investigations, but opposition wants to investigate corruption in any Ministry, agency or other body of federal administration.
Jefferson said he has many other denounces to present. He says that he has proofs of his charges.
Nobody knows how deep the Probing Comission will go, how many people of government are involved, how much responsibility the President and Ministers may be charged with.

Edson Cholbi Nascimento, 35, son of famous football player Pelé, was arrested by the Police, for "association for drug traffic".
Edson, who is known as "Edinho", is son of Pelé and Rose, first wife of the player. He was a somewhat famous goal-keeper of Santos, the team of Pelé, during the 1990s.

The police say that investigations were conducted over 8 months, and revealed that Edinho was part of a gang which distributed drugs in the city of Santos.
Edinho says that he was just an addicted to marijuana, not a trafficker.
Edinho was involved in another incident a few years back: he was participating of a street race (forbidden in Brazil), and his car killed an assistant; he is still on trial for this accident.

Pelé visited Edinho on jail. He said that maybe he had been working too much, and neglected the education of his son. Pelé is also father of a couple of twins, aged 3, from his second marriage.

Read more about the son of Pelé arrested

Sensus Institute released a survey yesterday showing that the popularity of the Government and the popularity of the President fell in May, for the third month in a row.
These surveys are interesting because Sensus performs interviews periodically, even when there are no elections coming; other institutions condut surveys, but only in electoral times or when there is a major political event.

Results of the Sensus survey:
President Lula had approval of 65.4% in December, 66.1% in February, 60.1% in April, 57.4% in May.
The Government had approval of 44.5% in December, 42.6% in February, 41.9% in April, 39.8% in May.
Survey showed also that, if elections were held today, President Lula would be re-elected.
It is interesting to see that the approval of the President has been way above the approval of his government; the difference used to be smaller in 2003, right after Lula took office, but has been only growing.

Visit the website of Sensus Insitute for more details.

The São Paulo Gay Parade had, according to the organizers, 2.5 million attendants.
Observers from the Guiness Book were present and, if confirmed, these figures will make the São Paulo event the largest GLS Parade in the world.

The Parade was absolutely peaceful, like in previous years. It is estimated that 700,000 tourists visited the city.
Several booths were assembled to collect signatures in favor of a draft of law which legalizes the civil union between persons of the same genre. Such draft already exists, but it´s dormant in the Congress; if 1,200,000 signatures are collected, the draft will gain priority, and will have to be voted sooner.

Yesterday, the President of the Congress declared to be created a Probing Comission to investigate corruption in the Postal Service company.
The Comission will be composed by Senators and Deputies; in Portuguese, the Comission is called Comissão Parlamentar Mista de Inquérito.
The Government tried hard to prevent the Comission; all the newspapers yesterday mentioned the efforts of Ministers to persuade Deputies and Senators to remove their signatures from the document that supports the CPI; however, many members of Worker´s Party and other ally parties maintained their support.

The Government still sees conspiratory theories behind the Comission.
Now, the Government will use other tactics to slow down investigation. First, they will use all the thirty days allowed by law to appoint the representatives in the Comission; then, by carefully choosing representatives who are experienced and who faithful to the government, the hope is that the investigations will not so deep and wide as to cause scandals.

The Supreme Federal Court accepted the denounce against the Minister of Social Security, Romero Jucá.
Jucá is charged, among other things, of using fraudulent methods to obtain loans from official banks.
Read other charges against Jucá.

President Lula will be visiting Korea and Japan this week.
Lula is going to try to increase trading and to attract new investments to Brazil. The entourage includes the Ministers of Finances, Development and Energy, and the governors of Brazilian States of Ceará and Rio Grande do Sul.
Other Ministers were scheduled to travel, but had to stay in Brazil trying to persuade their Party members to not support the Probing Comission of the Correios.

On 16th May, Brazilian TV exhibited contents of a video tape showing State Deputies trying to blackmail the Governor of Rondonia.
Besides trying this blackmail, the Deputies managed to get an injunction to prevent the exhibition of the tape in the State of Rondonia.
Revolted, the population besieged the Parliament and the Tribunal in Rondonia.
Read more about corruption in Rondonia.

A study by the World Economic Forum showed that, among 57 countries surveyed, Brazil ranks 51st in what concerns equality of opportunities between men and women.
Read more here.

France won yesterday, May 15th, the first World Cup of Beach Soccer, played in Copacabana, Brazil.

Brazil won many World Championships of beach soccer; click here to read more.
However, this was the first time that FIFA endorsed this sport, and hence this was the first time that a World Cup was organized.

In the final match, France beat Portugal in the penalties decision, after a tie 3 x 3 in the match.
Brazil, which had been defeated by Portugal in the semi-final, won Japan and finished 3rd.
Brazil played with its full force, but was beaten by a better Portugal. Romário, who is about to retire from professional football, started his career as a beach player; he says that he is willing to play the coming editions.
Read report by o Globo about the I World Cup of Beach Soccer.

Época brings an article about the affair Ronaldo and Cicarelli.

The cover of IstoÉ reads: "Forget about aging". Inside, a report about new products and therapys which promise to rejuvenate men and women up to ten years.

The cover of Veja brings a photo of a famous Brazilian actor, Raul Cortez, who fought and won a battle against cancer. The report mentions the progress of science in the battle against the disease, showing several cases where the number of cured patients increased.
However, the most important report of Veja is not on the cover: Veja obtained recorded video-tapes which shows a Director of the Brazilian Post Service blatantly accepting bribing and talking about corruption.
As it happens with most State owned companies, the Board of Directors is appointed by the President of Republic, by indication of political parties; in this case, the Director was indicated by the PTB (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro).
The Director was recorded putting R$3,000.00 cash into is pocket. He went on to say that this money would go to the Party; that the President of the Party and all other dignitaries were aware of the "contribution"; that all other people indicated by the Party to other state-companies would do the same.
The bribe was being paid because a company wanted to become a seller of services to the Correios; Brazil has a strict legislation regarding government contracts, but the Director said that corruption could make things easier. The tape was recorded by this same company, which setup a sting to denounce the corruption.
Full report at Veja issue #1905, May 18th 2005.

The couple Rosinha Garotinha (governor of State of Rio de Janeiro) and her husband Anthony Garotinho (ex-governor of the same State) were condemned yesterday by Judge Denise Appolinária for having commited electoral crimes.
In the elections for Mayor last year, the Garotinhos were giving support to the candidate of their Party, PMDB, to the government of the city of Campos (this is the city where Garotinho gained political projection, and winning here was a matter of honour to him).
According to the Judge, Garotinho used public resources to try to gain votes for his candidate (which, in the end, was not elected). Garotinho gave away food baskets, school kits, citizen-checks (a welfare assistance aid regulated by law); moreover, they promised to sell houses for R$1, to potential electors; furthermore, about R$ 318.000 (over US$ 100,000) in cash were found at the headquarters of the Party, which should be used to pay for votes.
Read articles about Garotinho here and here.

The Garotinhos are going to appeal. If the sentence of the Judge is connfirmed by a Superior Tribunal, they will be forbidden to run for any political position until 2007.
Anthony Garotinho is an important potential candidate to Presidency in 2006. Besides having his wife as governor of Rio, Garotinho is a leader among the Evangelists in Brazil. Recent surveys have shown that Garotinho may be the difference between Lula winning or not a re-election for Presidency.

Last year, some of the major Brazilian magazines found evidences that the President of Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles, would have commited two crimes: sending money from Brazil to USA via illegal channels; giving false statements to the Electoral Justice and to the Brazilian IRS, so as to, at the same time, run for the Chamber of Deputies (to which he was elected, but had to resign to take office at the Central Bank) and not to pay taxes in Brazil.
Late last year, President Lula issued a Provisional Measure, giving to the President of Central Bank the status of a Minister. As such, Meirelles could only be prosecuted by the Supreme Court, and not by the first entry of Justice. The opposition disputed the Measure, but the Supreme Court declared it to be constitutional.
As soon as the Measure was issued, the Attorney General (the only competent party in such cases) required the prosecution of Meirelles. Yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed with the prosecution; the Court authorized the breaking of fiscal and banking secrecy of Meirelles.
The opposition asks for Meirelles demotion or resignation, at least while investigation lasts. President Lula says he won´t dismiss Meirelles, and Meirelles says he won´t resign.

The report by o Globo on this subject is here:
President of Central Bank of Brazil to be prosecuted

At the end of the Summit, countries signed the Declaration of Brasilia.
Main points of the Declaration: support to the Palestinian cause (including the retreating of Israeli troops from Arab areas); support to democratization in Iraq; support to Argentina, in its pretention of sovereignity over the Falkland islands.
Check out the full text, in several languages, of the Declaration of Brasilia.

In an interview, President Lula was asked whether the presence of non-democratic Arab countries would have prevented the Declaration from mentioning more explicity the need of Democracy everywhere in the world. President Lula answered that the definition of Democracy was relative, and, as such, a mention to one-sided view of Democracy could not be imposed to the other parties.
Read more about the repercussions here.

Today, in Brasilia, President Lula will open the Summit of Arab and South American countries.
The Summit aims at improving commercial and diplomatic relations among the countries.
To attend the Summit, the Chiefs of Arab countries imposed tight security measures; this caused the traffic system of Brasilia to collapse, and the civil servants were dismissed from work today.
The Summit will last today and tomorrow only.

The cover of Veja is a report about "Life after Death"; the Espiritism is growing in Brazil, and a few personalities are mentioned as believers of this religion. Veja brings also an article about a survey made by order of the President of the Supreme Court, Nelson Jobim which should be the most complete portray of the Judiciary System in Brazil; according to Jobim, the survey should put apart the cases where inefficiency is due to lack of resources, and where it is due to a bad management.

Época brings a potential scandal in the cover; the headline is "Laws for Sale in Brazil". The case: Fiat, the Italian based car maker, was owing several hundred millions to the Brazilian Revenue Service (Receita Federal); Fiat lost all appeals, in administrative and Judiciary courts. Then, according to Época, Fiat hired lawyers with connections inside the Receita, and these lawyers and connections managed to come up with a Provisional Measure which would provide amnesty to debtors in the Fiat´s situation. With this, Fiat saved R$ 643 million; the report says that the lawyers and the then sub-chief of Receita were paid R$ 12.8 million. Read the Época´s article: Laws for Sale in Brazil.

Isto É main article talks about how to be a competitive profissional in today´s corporative life.

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