International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | 页面 18

Territorial and Corrosive: The “jogo do bicho” (Animal Game) and Organized Crime in Brazil
an amnesty in order to buy the allegiance of these “men of honor,” who would
consequently support the Fascist party.
At the end of the Second World War, the Italian Mafiosi presented themselves
as victims of Fascism and took up with the Allies, starting with the Americans,
taking advantage of the new international context and the bipolar order that was
beginning to develop. This demonstrates the remarkable adaptability of mafia organizations,
which are never guided by ideology: the Italian Mafia associated itself
first with Mussolini and then with the Allies.
In Brazil, it was much the same thing. Like Mussolini, successive military
presidents ordered the governors of Rio de Janeiro and police chiefs to crack down
on the Bicheiros and the animal game in the region. In 1968, the fifth Institutional
Act—known as AI 5—provided the legislative framework that would allow the
federal government and the State of Rio to curb the Bicheiros’ activities. Written
by General Artur da Costa e Silva, the text granted dictatorial powers to the president;
suspended the Constitution, Congress and personal freedoms; and imposed
censorship. The decree was the start of the harshly repressive era of Brazilian dictatorship—the
years of lead—a time when the military were no longer accountable
to anyone. 26 This was also the start of an aggressive campaign against the carioca
mafia, similar to the campaign waged by Mussolini in Italy.
The military regime needed to ensure that it had a monopoly on the use
of force. As a result, any group—political or criminal—that threatened the government
would be violently repressed. Some of the great barons of the animal
game, such as Castor de Andrade, occasionally spent time in jail, mostly in the
Ilha Grande prison.
Castor de Andrade was the first of the bosses to feel the effects of the state’s
clampdown. General Luís de França Oliveira, secretary for public security, conducted
a ruthless campaign against the Bicheiros. At the end of 1968, Castor
de Andrade and other bicheiros such as Natal, Nilo Camelo, Elídio Gomes de
Oliveira, José Caruzzo Escafura and Mario Stabile were arrested and imprisoned
in Ilha Grande.
Castor was charged with bribery and immorality offenses. But the arrangements
for his detention demonstrated his power to corrupt. Instead of languishing
in an 8m 2 cell like a common criminal, he was put up on the island in a furnished
and redecorated eight-bedroom villa, with servants and a boat to deliver
his frequent guests. In an interview for the newspaper Pasquin, Castor spoke of
his time in prison: “I was imprisoned on the island. However, I was given a huge
house, which I had renovated. I took on four servants and a butler. I organized
samba school parades. I had a games room, a telephone, a cinema. It was such a
nice house that it was known as the “guesthouse.” When the prison governor had
guests, he would put them up in my house.”
26 The most repressive era in the history of Brazil (between 1968 and 1974) was known as “the
years of lead.”
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