One important warning: This article contains photos taken after a massacre. If you have a strong stomach, go ahead, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

In the previous article, I spoke on uncontrolled migration / immigration as one of the factors that transformed Sao Paulo in a chaotic city. However, that is not an isolated problem, it has connections with other problems, among them the corruption that exists here in Brazil. But before I start to talk about corruption in Sao Paulo, it is necessary to explain some things about the relationship between public and private, something very comprehensive and complex that I’ll summarize in a few lines. Again let me warn the reader: this is not an academic article, does not seek absolute and / or irrefutable truths, I am no expert in Brazilian History and I am not a journalist, so this is nothing more than an interpretation of reality, an interpretation of facts based on empiricism.

The problem of corruption in Brazil is old and in Baroque texts was possible to find criticism to the corrupt behaviour. Gregory de Matos (1636 - 1696) was one of the the greatest baroque poets that used to “denounce” the corruption, pointing the hypocritical behavior of others (like judges and priests) through sarcasm. At that time, there wasn’t a formal separation between public and private and corruption was not seen as something that should be fought, it was not wrong because society did not see as something wrong. And until today, millions of Brazilians cannot see how wrong this is. However, it’s undeniable that this kind of thing is a legacy of the colonial period that lasts until today in the administration of the Brazilian State.

And it is also undeniable that the lack of democracy is a major stimulus for corruption. And this is exactly what happened during the military dictatorship (1964 to 1985). The federal government, instead of improving itself, has become more bureaucratic and more corrupt. The State was able to do only one thing, persecute and oppress citizens, because neither was more capable of managing the economy. The agencies that should combat corruption, since Federal Police to those responsible for regulating the financial market, were abandoned. And what is perhaps worse, an entire generation grew up thinking that what happened in the military regime was something common, right.

Protest in Sao Paulo against the military regime

The redemocratization process was confused and it happened not due to popular pressure which, although intense, would not be able to take the military from power. To be honest, there are many similarities between the end of slavery and the redemocratization process in Brazil: somehow both only happened because it was a desire of the elite, to be more specific, the industrial and financial elite.

So, even with redemocratization, the ground was ready for misappropriation of funds because transparency was a concept that millions of Brazilians couldn’t understand, as they never had listened about it. And there was not any kind of “law of Fiscal Responsibility” (only in the late 90’s is that such law was created), which resulted in a unbelievable public debt. In Sao Paulo, the money in areas such as Education, Public Health and Public Security was being invested in construction of roads, for example. The first governor, Orestes Quércia, elected in the 80’s was famous for having built several roads and because he enriched very fast (he even created a “new” neighborhood in Sao Paulo where he lives until today, of course that he created it with public money). The relocation and misuse of funds turned into a fatal combination.

Neighborhood where the former governor Quércia lives

Then, he made a successor, Fleury, also a corrupt, but with a plus “quality”, an incompetence beyond the imagination. And it was during his administration that happened the “Massacre of Carandiru”, which officially killed 111 prisoners. In 1992, the Carandiru prison was the largest in the world, with nearly 7000 prisoners.

Prisoners who remained alive after the massacre

This episody even today is considered a national disgrace: a rebellion started in one of the flags and spread up quickly. While the prisoners were killing each other inside, the number of police surrounding the prison increased until the commander Ubiratan Guimaraes, who had been personally authorised by the governor, has decided to enter. Only one detail, the rebellion was almost ending when the police come. To despair of family members who were on the outside, shots began to be heard and the number of police officers did not stop growing. The police came at 4 PM and only came out at around midnight. Most of the prisoners died with a shot in the head or the chest.

About this episode, the captain later said “If my intention was killed, would have killed much more than 111″. At that time, police in Sao Paulo was the most brutal of Brazil, killing one person every 7 hours. Furthermore, due to lack of resources, only 5% of violent crimes were solved (currently 70% of these crimes are solved) and the wages of the police was ridiculously low, which stimulated Police corruption. The commander was assassinated this year in a very strange situation.

111 killed prisioners

One year after the massacre, a famous politician for his corrupt reputation, was elected to be mayor in Sao Paulo. His administration was marked by the construction of major avenues, public debt and the diversion of public resources. He was formally accused of having a secret account in a tax haven in which are deposited US$ 200 million.

At the end of the 90’s, both the city hall, as the government of Sao Paulo were bankrupt, without resources to meet the population. It was required an intervention by the federal government so that the debts were renegotiated and the new governor, Mario Covas, had to do a unprecedented fiscal tightening in Sao Paulo. Personally, I believe the governor, only managed to reelect himself as governor due to his fame of being honest, because the measures he took were very unpopular. It was enough for the paulistas, and the corruption finally has become something reprehensible.

However, the damage was too great and it was impossible to reverse the situation. After 15 years of corrupt governors and mayors and high rates of unemployment in Sao Paulo, the inevitable happened. I’m referring to the rise of organized crime, more specifically, the union between several drug lords, kidnappers and bank robbers that resulted in the creation of the PCC (Capital’s First Command), a powerfull criminal group which controls large parts of the crimes that occur in the state of Sao Paulo and other states of Brazil and that begins to act in other countries of South America. But that is subject to the next article.

PS: all corrupt politicians cited in this text are allies of President Lula.