Justice in Brazil

Some thoughts on the justice system in Brazil, the problem of crime and even the US Consular Foreign Service. I ran across a certain www.boycottbrazil.org site today, while looking for information on Guanabara Bay (go figure). This site is about (I quote) "The Extradition, Torture and Electronic Mind Control of U.S. Citizen John Gregory Lambros, a Native of Minnesota." It is rather confusing, but the facts seem to be that Mr Lambros was arrested in 1991 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, evidently on drug charges. The local US government did little to help and the Brazilian government made things worse. Lambros claims that both the gringo and Brazilian courts lied to him, and -- believe it or not -- a bunch of Brazilian lawyers ripped him off. Lambros says he was held in degrading conditions in Rio de Janeiro and claims to have been tortured in Brasilia. Then it gets strange… Lambos claims that implants were surgically implanted his brain to interrogate, monitor and control him, and that he been continually bombarded by an intense elector-magnetic field resulting from his implants. It gets worse. Lambos also claims that these implants are part of a world-wide mind control conspiracy, citing sources in the US and Sweden. Evidently, everybody in Sweden already has been turned into robots.

A few more quotes from BoycottBrazil.Org before getting back to Brazil and saying a few things about the jails there:
"We have (been led) out of the industrial society to enslavement in the Information Society" and "there are frightening developments concerning the use of data surveillance, known as biomedical telemetry, mind control, optical electronic surveillance and brain-computer interaction … The properties of this technology enable the monitoring of mental functions, thought, deed and associated cerebral neurophysiological changes as well as the manipulation of behavior, values and personality from limitless geographical distance." The surveillance system is operated by implanted transmitters in the head or electrodes in the brain but also injectable microchips, substances or micro transmitters implanted in any part of the body. These implantations take place "in unwitting patients" during hospital operations, in patients at psychiatric clinics. In Sweden all elderly persons are implanted when "taken into long term care" (ah ha, Clinton's universal health care!) and in all persons taken into police custody or in prison. Implants are also in the form of dental material and false teeth, and can be mixed into pharmacological products (i.e., medicine.) Back to Brazil. So Mr Lambert wants everybody to Boycott Brazilian products, because he was mistreated and they put computerized control and tracking chips in his brain, as they are doing to millions of others all over the globe.

First of all let me say that you don't want to be a guest in a Brazilian jail (they are dirty, brutal places filled with low-life criminals and some few stupid people), and if you are ever in a jail you want to be good friends with a judge, a local drug dealer or even a bicheiro. What probably happened was that Lambert didn't have friends, or worse yet, he had enemies. Whatever the facts, two things are true: 1. If an American citizen gets into trouble anywhere in Latin America, do not count on the local US Consular staff. With a few exceptions, they are worthless. They will at most follow regulations and policy, which really doesn't help you too much even if the problem is not serious. 2. Brazilians lawyers will screw you and then screw you again, as long as you have a penny to give them. In fact, they are worse then the cops. If you work a deal with the police, you might get out. If you pay the lawyers, then you are in double trouble. It is also very possible he was mistreated or even tortured. However, when he starts with the bug-in-the-brain stuff, he lost me. That sounds rather loony, to say the least. If I want weird or crazy, there is a group of people here in Arizona that believe lizard-men from planet Itytrzzzwwssrt live in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix, and even have a web-site and pictures to prove it.

I had some contact with the Foreign Service at the Consulates in Brazil, and I found them unhelpful (trying to register Laura, my daughter, as a US citizen), rude to me and to Brazilians seeking Visas (there was this one lady in Sao Paulo, when the office was on the Paulista in the 1970s, who was a real witch), and when a colleague at work was trying to get married (they finally went to Paraguay, which took care of the ceremony in no time). The situation was so bad among citizens that I remember being told that if I ever got in trouble anywhere, to tell the officials that I was Canadian or Israeli, because they will help you more than the US State Department staff.

Now a word about the justice system in Brazil. It is corrupt, but the problem starts at the top with the politicians and judges. I do not blame the policemen on the streets as much as I do the judges and the people who make the laws. They care nothing about the average citizen. Rich and influential people in Brazil, by nature, do not get into legal troubles, and if they do get caught (very rarely) they buy themselves out or, if needed, get a new law passed to solve the problem (Fleury!).

The middle class, the small storekeeper, the factory worker and teacher --- they are the ones that suffer. They are robbed everyday by the government (taxes, interest rates and inflation) to support a worthless bureaucratic infrastructure

and legal system that is designed to maintain a certain level of privilege to the government elite

and their compadres in the media, finance and industry. This was true 50 years ago under Vargas, as it was under the Milicos and it is still true today under Cardoso and Lula. Nothing has changed. On top of this, the justice (os juizes) and legal systems (ABA, the lawyers) and left-wing 'Human Rights' community have made it their mission to protect criminals (who cares about the victims; a vitima se dane!). There is little or no justice for the little people (or middle class) in Brazil, either from crime

or corruption. I pity the average policeman in Brazil

, that gets little thanks and even less money for doing a hard job, when the lawyers, judges and politicians are clearly inclined to side with the criminals.

Once again I blame the legislators that pass "enlightened" laws that never really apply to them. Consider the death penalty. They have a saying: Brasil nao tem pena de morte, menos para a vitima. That about says it all. Brazil has no death penalty, except for the victim. And if some poor criminal is caught, he probably won't be convicted. If convicted, he can't get more than 30 years, and will be out in 15, or maybe even 7 years. I don't know how it is now, but it use to be if you were upper class (university graduate) they put you in separate jails, until your lawyer found a loop-hole, paid off the judges and delegados and got you out.

Consider the "Em fragrante" law. Once again I am not sure how it is now, but if you weren't caught "in the act" of a crime in Brazil and turned yourself in latter, you could usually wait for your trial in freedom. Now a true story: I once hit a young woman with my car in Santo Amaro, Sao Paulo. I really didn't see her and she wasn't hurt, but I insisted on taking her to a hospital to check her out. No good deed is left unpunished. The police wanted to write me up, but I got out of trouble with a lawyer (or mostly because the young lady was a Crente on her way to church and she told them she wasn't hurt) who later told me to "never, never stop and help someone you run over - it will get you into trouble." Great law!

Probably the worse aspect of the criminal system in Brazil is the Juizado de Menores, the juvenile justice. It is no more than a breeding ground for future criminals run (for the most part) by irresponsible jerks following laws made by fools. And the people suffer, but the system makes judges and politicians feel good because of all the "enlightened" laws they have on the books. Viva a teoria, a pratica se dane! I remember in Jacarepagua some merchants that were being constantly held up by pivetes (young robbers)

. They couldn't get any results from the police, which would actually catch the little thugs and take them to jail but the judges and courts would let them walk right out the door. So one day, after months of seeing themselves and their customers robbed and mugged, the owners had a talk with some people (reportedly off-duty or ex-policemen) who rounded up the kids and took them on a long ride (destination unknown!). Sad, but true! Yes, but who was to blame? Everybody, but most of all the judges and law-makers! I despise them.

I may get into trouble for this, but I have little sympathy for some of the so-called homeless children in Rio and Sao Paulo. I am talking about the "pivetes" in Rio (little knives?) in Rio or "trombadinhas" in Sao Paulo (little bumpers, because they bump you into you and then run off with your purse or wallet). Or perhaps it would be better to say that my sympathy for them is less than it is for their victims, who are usually forgotten about. Now some of these homeless kids are just poor, innocent, unfortunate kids caught in bad circumstances, and deserve help. Others are nothing but young, vicious, cruel killers. My first experience with them was when they stabbed a co-worker on Av Sao Luis in Sao Paulo. His name was Joao Ribeiro and all he did was ask the kids not to bother an old lady. For his efforts, a little kid about 3 feet tall ran a dagger through Joao's intestines several times, without a word of warning. In Rio, I would see them on the streets, or they would come up and clean off your plate at outdoor table at the Armarelinho restaurant at Cinelandia (It is impossible to eat or say no to a kid that says he's hungry!) I remember them sleeping around the churches downtown (and around Pio X square and the Candelaria, where they were brutally massacred by off duty cops, if I remember correctly). Probably the worst thing was the "arastao" (drag net) on the beaches

, when the pivetes (with big kids from the favelas) would swarm the victims in groups, taking everything they wanted. I never experienced this myself, but had friends that did. I really don't have an answer to this problem. Oh yes, and most of the kids are not really homeless, they have families, but just prefer to live on the streets (often for very good reasons, I am sure). It is a mess!

Anyway, JOHN GREGORY LAMBROS is Prisoner No. 00436-124 at the U. S. Penitentiary Leavenworth, PO Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS 66048-1000, USA and both he and the legal system in Brazil are nuts.

Page updated: June 2004