Beija-Flor accused!

And now the federal police have said that there are "strong indications" that bicheiro Anisio, the funder of Beija-Flor, bought their Carnaval championship this year, presumably by bribing Liesa judges. The blogs and Orkut chat groups are talking about nothing else; the Mangueira chat group is almost in a fervor.

Every carioca I've ever spoken to believes that the Carnaval results are always rigged. But there's never been any proof. And it's so subjective anyway ("best parade float"? "best flag-bearer's dance"? How can you possibly compare such things, anyway?)... and people are so passionate about their favorite escola that they'd always rather believe that a poor result was due to corrupt judging rather than to any fault of the escola.

What's ironic is that Beija-Flor probably did deserve the championship - they really had the best parade. Many carioca friends told me that this was the only year they could remember when everyone agreed that the winner actually deserved the win! As the Roda-de-Samba blog writers put it, "If there was behind-the-scenes fixing, it was completely unnecessary, since their parade was indisputably the best of the year." But, what everybody's really buzzing about is whether this explains Grande Rio's 2nd place finish (that's what really had Manguiera steamed) and Salgueiro's bizarrely low placing. And rumors are flying about Beija-Flor's other 3 championships in recent years, some of which Unidos da Tijuca probably should have won.

I can't help but wonder if you might have to bribe judges just to give your escola a fair shot. Sort of just to balance the effects of other escola's bribes. If Beija-Flor had NOT bribed the judges, but still had the best parade, would they have won?

And, inevitably, people are starting to say, if the results were tinkered with at all, Imperio Serrano and Estacio de Sa should surely protest being sent down.

But this is all just speculation. So far there's just been the 1 statement from the Federal Police, and no evidence presented yet. Wait and see.

Feds nab LIESA president & Beija-Flor bicheiro

Well, I'm far from Rio now, and feeling farther all the time; but I can still follow the news! And this week was a weird one. The Federal Police just announced they'd arrested 25 of Rio's big boys on charges of corruption & money-laundering, in what they describe as the biggest anti-corruption sting they've ever done in all of Brazil. They took in many of Rio's long-time "bicheiros", the Mafia-like guys who made their fortunes on the illegal street lotteries (jogo-de-bicho, the animal game). Those arrested included.... the president of LIESA! (the league of samba schools, the organization that runs Carnaval) And the honorary president of champion escola Beija-Flor! - he's the guy who annually gives Beija-Flor over half their annual budget.

Beija-Flor is so dominant these days that the newspapers are now saying we are in the "Beija-Flor Era". But without their bicheiro I don't know how they'd do. Beija-Flor has phenomenal talent and drive, but as Imperio Serrano's results show, talent isn't enough; you need money too if you want to win.

Everyone seems to expect the bicheiros won't stay jailed soon; but who knows.

What with this, and the assassinations at Salgueiro a few months back, and the scandal that just broke at Uniao da Ilha (a video was posted on YouTube showing top Ilha officials, including possibly the president, saying things like "I'll want a little piece of that" to a donor who was donating big bucks to influence the choice of the 2007 enredo); and then there was the recent judge's decree forcing Mocidade to postpone their presidential election a month, apparently after some fuzzy business regarding their list of voters. (Mocidade's got a nail-bitingly crucial election coming up. Only escola members are allowed to vote... but when an escola election is this hot, suddenly you can find you're not listed as an escola member any more...)

Well, apparently it's business as usual in Rio. Escola politics has never been for the faint of heart. People get jailed, shot, even killed; but the show goes on.