Pubdate: Fri, 15 Dec 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260
Fax: (713) 220-3575
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Andrew Downie

DRUG CORRUPTION STYMIES BRAZIL

Report Accuses Hundreds Of Involvement, Including High-Level Politicians

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The longest investigation into narcotics 
trafficking ever carried out in Brazil has found that drug-related 
corruption has become so common that the country cannot mount an 
effective attack against the problem.

A 1,198-page report was released last week by a legislative 
commission that spent 14 months investigating organized drug crimes.

It accused 824 people of offenses ranging from drug running to arms 
trafficking to tax evasion.

The suspects included two federal congressmen, two former state 
governors and 15 state legislators.

Scores more mayors, judges, police officers, lawyers and even senior 
military figures from the neighboring countries of Bolivia and 
Paraguay also were accused of involvement in a business that the 
report said sends $50 billion in dirty money through Brazil's banks 
each year.

While the commission called for the arrests of those named, it said 
drug-related corruption has become so widespread in Brazil that it 
cannot be cleaned up without help from the military and rearming the 
police.

In the meantime, it said, the country's federal, state and military 
police forces must wage a coordinated campaign against the drug gangs 
and their powerful allies and the government must strengthen its 
witness protection program.

"Authorities have to understand that organized crime is organized and 
we are disorganized," said Eber Silva, one of the commission's 
members.

He called on authorities to restructure "the police, the justice 
system and the armed forces because if they don't, then a situation 
that is already unbearable will become even more unbearable."

Some experts expressed doubt whether many of the powerful figures 
named will ever be prosecuted.

James Cavallaro, the head of the Global Justice human rights group, 
said Brazil's judicial system is "overloaded, backlogged and 
inefficient and suffers pressure from these thugs and their allies to 
remain inefficient."

Instead, he said, "history shows us that what is likely to occur is 
that the follow-up will be focused on lower level traffickers."

The report named Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo as the main centers in 
Brazil where narcotics traffickers operate and highlighted how drug 
gangs from across the country work together to import cocaine, heroin 
and marijuana from the Andean nations and distribute them in Brazil's 
cities.

It cited more than 100 companies the traffickers used to launder 
money and resell goods stolen by gangs of thieves.

Most dramatically, the report revealed the key roles played by 
politicians, police officers and other influential figures in the 
illegal drug trade.

"It showed fairly clearly the relationship between drug trafficking, 
organized crime, violence and the corruption of authorities and, in 
particular, police," said Cavallaro.

"Those who are tied to the import and export of drugs and those who 
are involved at a high level are often authorities and police 
officers" he said.

"To really resolve the problem of criminal violence," he said, "you 
really need to purge the police."

One of those named in the report, former Congressman Hildebrando 
Pascoal, was removed from the Chamber of Deputies last year after 
investigators were told that he ran a death squad that cut up victims 
with chain saws and dropped them in vats of acid.

The man who replaced him in the chamber was one of the two federal 
deputies accused in the report.

The report also provided fascinating details into how far drug 
trafficking has permeated Brazilian business and society.

One part told how a drug trafficker gave a judge a 
drinks-distribution company in return for a reduction in his sentence.

Another chapter said traffickers use 600 clandestine airports in Sao 
Paulo state alone.

As a measure of the report's influence, at least eight and perhaps as 
many as 30 people who gave evidence to investigators later turned up 
dead, officials acknowledged.

One of the report's authors told congressional leaders that if they 
were serious about defeating the traffickers, they must create a 
permanent body to investigate them and their accomplices.

"Our success was having taken off the blindfold so that the country 
can see the reality that until now was only partially visible," said 
Moroni Torgan, who is a member of Congress.

But "the work is a preliminary work," he said. "We shone the 
spotlight on organized crime and highlighted lots of actors, but 
there are many more in the wings."
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