The Brazillionaires
The Olympics were supposed to be Brazil’s chance to show off its progress toward developed-nation status. Instead, they reveal a country still haunted by violence, mismanagement, economic crisis and corruption.
In the host city of Rio de Janeiro, investigators have recently uncovered millions of dollars in bribes skimmed from Olympic projects. This adds to the cost of an already wasteful event, but the backstory also reveals how Brazil’s elites hold onto power.
Some of Brazil’s richest families are at the heart of the Olympic scandals. I dug into their lives while working as a ‘Billionaires Reporter’ for Bloomberg News in São Paulo, where I covered the ultra-rich as a full-time job. This gave me a rare window on one of the world’s most unequal countries, where money and influence have long been concentrated in few hands. an anti-subversion unit known as Operação Bandeirante, or Oban. There, government agents beat her and gave her electric shocks while she hung by her elbows and knees from a pole known as the parrot’s perch.
Oban was funded by prominent bankers and businessmen. According to the 2014 report by Brazil’s National Truth Commission, a construction tycoon named Sebastião Camargo was one of the top donors. Through a side venture, he even provided frozen meals for its agents.
In those Cold War days, some industrialists believed that crushing the insurgent left was a matter of their own survival. But for Camargo, doing favors for the military was also a smart business move, because his company built public works. Known as Camargo Corrêa, it went on to build some of the regime’s most grandiose projects, such as the 10-mile bridge linking Rio with neighboring Niterói – one of the longest in the world.
The post The Brazillionaires appeared first on LewRockwell.
Leave a Reply