In the first episode of Globoplay’s Vale o Escrito a Guerra do Jogo do Bicho series, João Luís, a bettor, explains how he sees his job: “Here I am an illusion seller. They call me a criminal, but I prefer to call myself that.” In the following chapters, prepare to suspend your moral judgments and listen to a range of testimonies from people in and out of this multibillion dollar industry of the law. A rare and historic document that helps us better understand the complex criminal conspiracy in contemporary Rio de Janeiro and reflect on how we got here.
João Luís’s argument is well received by public opinion. After all, selling illusions is much better than drug trafficking, another billiondollar business in the criminal market. The first offers those who bet the chance to get rich by a lucky chance based on signs that appear during the dream. It benefits the “system” because it keeps alive the hope of overcoming its obstacles and creates an optimism that ultimately weakens the explosive force of popular discontent and collective struggles for reform. Drug trafficking is going in the opposite direction. Excessive consumption symbolizes disorder and can disrupt the “system” because it weakens individual control, can lead to addiction, insanity, irrationality and escapism.
While common sense still associates the animal with tradition and the maintenance of order, earning complacency among authorities and the police, drugs are easily associated with unpredictability and fear of violence, fueling an endless war in Brazil and the world, which ended in Rio de Janeiro In Janeiro there are bloody police operations in the hills and favelas. No matter how harmful and tragic the consequences of these actions may be, in the end they are tolerated and even encouraged by the population.
Throughout the series, directed by Felipe Awi, Ricardo Calil and Gian Carlo Bellotti, we see that the Bicheiros can be just as violent and dangerous as the drug dealers themselves. We also see the origin of these leaders’ seductive strength in their ability to get into the to invade the bowels of republican institutions. The criminals who organized the crime back in the 1970s and divided the territories among their families were villains and had the upper hand. They knew that money was not enough to influence politics and buy off the authorities. It was necessary to win the soul of the people and the elite in all dimensions. It was then that they gave the master card and began to finance the parades of the samba schools, the great national factory of dreams and illusions.
As Roberto Da Matta writes in the book “Carnavais, Malandros e Heróis”, during Carnival time is interrupted and space is created for the subversion of hierarchy in an unjust and unequal society. For an hour, the poor man takes revenge on the avenue and shows, in a glamorous spectacle broadcast around the world, that he knows how to be happier than the rich. Before apotheosis, yearround work in the samba industry strengthens community ties, increases neighborhood selfesteem, and celebrates the body and popular culture. It’s a sophisticated and creative way to enjoy life even in an unjust society, but it doesn’t change or revolutionize the foundations of the system, it just makes it bearable.
With the samba schools and the money of their patrons, this popular and conservative project grew in wealth, splendor and size. The synthesis of the Brazilian export soul emerged: people who know how to be happy, sensual, funny, beautiful and powerful, even in adversity. The Bicheiros, who created the material conditions for the construction of this imaginary full of cedars, crowns, flags and anthems, founded their territorial dynasties and became part of Rio’s cultural and economic elite, financing their power under the blind eyes of politicians, authorities and artists the media. They helped preserve the status quo by shaping the national image of joy created in parades.
In this way, Rio de Janeiro, the most aristocratic city in the Americas, developed into modernity while retaining the power of its rogue kings. Over time, this structure fell apart. As the series progresses, we understand the details of the selfdestructive process through historical testimonies such as those of Captain Aílton Guimarães (patron of Vila Isabel), twins Shana and Tamara Garcia, granddaughters of the late Miro and daughters of the late Maninho (former patron of Salgueiro), and Bernardo Bello, Shana’s exhusband, in open war with Rogério de Andrade, nephew of the late Castor de Andrade (former promoter of Padre Miguel’s Mocidade Independente). They showcase their charismatic personalities and recount their lives full of twists and turns, ostentation, tragedy, conflict and Shakespearean betrayal.
Given the weakening of these dynasties, we can better understand the structure of the current War for the Throne and the actions of the new militia dynasties. Some of these groups are bolstered by partnerships with drug traffickers and their guns, as well as mountain owners, long considered the biggest social threat in Rio. With the formation of militias, the criminal business expanded most rapidly in the last decade, in which more than half of the territories of Rio de Janeiro were dominated, geography and power in crime began to change. Last week I wrote about the current crime situation in Rio de Janeiro in an article for the Piauí website. Bicheiros, drug dealers and militiamen foster new alliances and rivalries in search of a new order in crime. The republican and democratic order appears powerless to respond to the influence of criminal representatives in their institutions.
The actions of evangelical drug dealers, who adopted a religious discourse to legitimize their authority in places like Parada de Lucas, Vigário Geral and Cidade Alta, must be understood against this backdrop of power shifts in crime. Peixão, the drug dealer who trained to be a pastor and believes he received a message from God in a dream, led the founding of the Israel complex with a messianic speech. Having a new mobilizing and charismatic cause that gives meaning to the fight of good against evil is, along with guns, another means of creating unity between bosses and subordinates in this game of thrones. I described this process in more detail in the book A Fé eo Fuzil Crime and Religion in Brazil in the 21st Century (Editora Todavia).
More than a mere discussion about police and public security, the dynamics of crime have become a central theme of Brazilian political debate. Examining the discourses behind violent acts helps to better understand the motivations that lead to changes and conflicts in society. In São Paulo, for example, the crime situation is significantly different from that in Rio, as is the history of violence in the state. The speech, which gave unity to crime and promoted the strength and authority of the leaders of the First Command of the Capital (PCC), was inspired by a speech of class struggle in a society formed by labor in industry and urban division between centers emerged and periphery. Inspired by the speeches of social movements and unions, the PCC promoted “crime awareness” by mobilizing the thieves’ union against the cruel and violent system. In this way, it was possible to establish more professional rules and encourage criminal entrepreneurship, thereby promoting surges in sales for network participants and access to the global market. Villainously, by laundering money and investing it in politics and the formal economy, he knew how to penetrate the system and is currently exploiting his new social position by infiltrating the institutions. In both Rio and São Paulo, not to mention other Brazilian states, such as those in the legal Amazon, making money has become the goal to be achieved, the great meaning of life, regardless of the harm to third parties and collective interests.
*In addition to Vale o Escrito, see Globoplay Doutor Castor by Marco Antonio Araújo and Lei da Selva: a História do Jogo do Bicho by Pedro Asbeg, which deal with the topic.
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