Brazil scandals need scorecard

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL — It was the president's brother on the line, asking for cash.

"Hey, get me two grand," Genival Inacio da Silva demanded of an alleged gambling kingpin, according to transcripts of wiretaps published here this month.

The telephone intercepts were part of a federal police operation known as Checkmate, which has led to the arrests of dozens of people in a slot-machine-distribution scam.

Checkmate is just the latest in a chain of theatrically named scandals that have come to dominate Brazilian headlines and tarnish the image of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, sometimes called the Teflon president because of his aptitude in shaking off scandal.

Lula won a landslide reelection last year but not before being forced into a second round of voting, in part because of scandals that had sparked talk of impeachment.

Lula, like most Brazilian politicians, came to office pledging to crack down on deep-rooted corruption. That goal has proved a Sisyphean task, however, in a nation where graft appears ingrained in the political system, costing taxpayers billions annually in bid-rigging and other crooked practices.

Since Lula took office in 2003, scandals with labels such as Hurricane, Anaconda, Vampire and Dossier-Gate have felled hundreds of public servants -- judges, members of Congress, police commanders and four Cabinet members, most recently Mines and Energy Minister Silas Rondeau. He resigned last month in the far-ranging Operation Razor, which focuses on public-works payoffs.

Rondeau allegedly accepted a $50,000 bribe from a construction firm hired to provide electricity to rural areas in the "Lights for Everyone" initiative, a favorite of Lula, Brazil's first working-class president. Authorities say officials received cash and gifts to steer contracts for projects that were overcharged or never built.

Even the No. 2 federal cop and sting-master, Zulmar Pimentel, who is credited with coining some of the catchy monikers for anti-corruption inquiries, was suspended last month when accusations surfaced that he was tipping off rogue underlings.

The scandals come and go like the latest films. Some cases intersect: Checkmate, a gambling inquiry, turned into an investigation of Lula's elder brother for alleged influence-peddling.

Representatives of the president's brother deny any wrongdoing, saying he was seeking a "loan" from the alleged gambling boss.