Post #4: Scandals in the Neighborhood

If you know anything about Brazilian politics, you probably have heard of Lula, the populist worker party president who is now in jail and who was proven guilty in multiple instances as part of an ongoing money laundering and corruption scandal called "Lavo Jato" or Operation Car Wash. Basically, bunches of high level politicians and businesses were all in cahoots to funnel government money into their own pockets through special rules for government contracts and elaborate state-sponsored construction projects and even deals with the mostly state run oil company. Epic stuff. Over $1 billion misappropriated funds, almost 100 convicted, 16 big, well-established companies, and it is still ongoing. There is even a Brazilian Netflix series based on the events called The Mechanism (and it is a pretty watchable series by the same director as Narcos).

Anyway. Last night there were pots banging in the neighborhood (common form of local protest) and horns honking - a whole lot of noise. This morning, I found out that we have a notorious neighbor who was put on house arrest last night. José Dirceu is an ex-minister and cabinet member in his 70s and he lives in the next building where the press was camped out to catch a glimpse still this morning.



Perhaps it wouldn't be the best idea to pop over with a neighborly casserole this time...