The Globo’s series of articles about dangerous connections and ever growing evident relations between samba schools and organized crime are extremely important. The subject is taboo, the type everyone knows about but no one has the courage to investigate.

The Rio newspaper is strictly alone: local competitors aren’t big enough to penetrate such risky territory, national papers have not yet decided that the time is right to hitch a ride, and even the electronic media, including Globo Network, keeps a respectable distance from the explosive issue.

The big truth is that the “jogo do bicho” or “animal’s game” (an illegal lottery with animal characters) has been going on for many decades because it has been able to position itself in a gray area, partly-accepted, partly-combated.

Media calls it infraction (contravenção), illicit that doesn’t quite constitute crime. And herein begins the swampy territory of euphemisms, ambiguities, and masquerades that gave the bicho its aura of impunity.

It’s no crime to make a small bet, but it is crime to contract the killing of bicho bookies. The lottery game is much more than a harmless wager that takes place at the street corner, it is a conglomerate of activities that intertwine and converge, some apparently licit, while others evasive and criminal.

Just as it happened with the Italian mafia whose initial business was selling protection, the bicho hardly escapes narcotraffick’s seductive billions.

TV’s Role

The relationship with samba schools and, most of all, the political circles that surrounded them gave the bicho an unbeatable alibi. The idea that Carnaval is the most important popular celebration in Brazil and, therefore, is above the law, offers the bicho an arsenal of cover-ups and an impressive longevity.

It just happens that the popular celebration is now history, property of magnanimous elites that leave only crumbs to the masses. The shady deals between big brewers, showbiz, and school theme sponsors is a business of royals, a mix of political and commercial marketing under the shield of pure and simple populism.

The merit of the reports from the Globo’s is in spontaneously taking the initiative, compelled by facts. It doesn’t look like an accusatory or moralistic crusade thought up by the paper’s task assigner, but a legitimate journalist mopping up operation.

Suite transformed into debate. The first in many years. Despite having begun after the follies, it can become permanent topic, capable of generating antidotes, correcting aberrations, and separating the chaff from the wheat.

One thing is certain, however: TV cannot form alliances. If we want to show how crime and racketeering have infiltrated Brazil’s society, if we want to protect samba, Carnaval, and genuine popular festivities, television will have to step up to the runway to clean it out.

If it stays outside, it’s an accomplice.

Alberto Dines, the author, is a journalist, founder and researcher at LABJOR—Laboratório de Estudos Avançados em Jornalismo (Laboratory for Advanced Studies in Journalism) at UNICAMP (University of Campinas) and editor of the Observatório da Imprensa.  You can reach him by email at obsimp@ig.com.br.

Translated from the Portuguese by Eduardo Assumpção de Queiroz. He is a freelance translator, with a degree in Business and almost 20 years of experience working in the fields of economics, communications, social and political sciences, and sports. He lives in São Paulo, Brazil. His email: eaqus@terra.com.br.

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