Economist.com Cities Guide: Sao Paulo Briefing - March 2006

News this month

The clock is ticking

Time is running out for Brazil’s main opposition party, the Social Democrats (PSDB), to choose their candidate for October’s presidential election. The frontrunners are São Paulo’s mayor, José Serra, and its governor, Geraldo Alckmin. Press reports suggesting that party leaders favour Mr Serra seemed confirmed when they were seen dining with him on February 16th. But Mr Serra has yet to publicly confirm his presidential ambitions. In 2004, he promised Paulistanos that he would serve a full term as mayor, until 2008.

Until recently opinion polls had put Mr Serra ahead of Brazil’s embattled president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. But a survey published on February 22nd showed Lula with an eight-point lead, a sign that the president is finally recovering from a money-for-votes scandal. Still, Mr Serra is streets ahead of his PSDB rival: no poll has ever shown Mr Alckmin winning the presidential race. PSDB leaders are understandably eager for Mr Serra to either announce his candidacy or back out, as his rivalry with Mr Alckmin is hurting the party. Mr Alckmin has floated the idea of a PSDB primary to pick a candidate, but the PSDB’s leader is opposing the move. The issue should be settled soon.

A riot revisited

Fourteen years ago police stormed a São Paulo prison to suppress a riot and left 111 inmates dead. What became known as the massacre of Carandiru shocked the world in 1992—and has again in 2006. On February 15th a special tribunal of magistrates overturned the 2001 murder conviction of the police officer in charge of the raid, Colonel Ubiratan Guimarães. Not only was his 632-year prison sentence revoked, but the tribunal absolved Colonel Guimarães of the killings, concluding that he was acting within the law.

Human-rights groups have condemned the tribunal's ruling as “shameful”. The Brazilian government only agreed to investigate the massacre under pressure from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organisation of American States. The tribunal’s new ruling has revived concern that Brazil’s police can ignore human rights with impunity. A further 84 policemen involved in the massacre are meant to be tried, but their cases are now in question.

On the road

All politicians make campaign promises; whether they keep them once elected is another matter. One of the key pledges made by Geraldo Alckmin in his race to become São Paulo’s governor in 2002 was to create an outer ring road to ease traffic in the city centre. To date only one third of the Rodoanel has been built. But in February the project took a step forward, when the State Environmental Council approved the route of a southern loop that will let traffic bypass the city on the way to Santos, Brazil's biggest port.

Yet challenges remain. Construction cannot begin until various legal obstacles are moved and a court-mandated study to determine the route’s effect on a tribe of Guarani Indians is carried out. Although São Paulo state has approved funds for the road, the study could delay construction until after October's presidential elections; no new project can begin after April 30th in an election year if it cannot be completed before October.

Concert tragedy

Poor planning and large crowds led to three deaths and 38 injuries at an impromptu concert outside São Paulo on February 4th. Throngs of teenagers came to see RBD, a wildly popular band of six Mexican soap-opera actors, in the parking lot of Extra, a supermarket chain owned by the Pão de Açúcar group. At the last minute the band’s record company, EMI, decided to add a concert to what was supposed to be an autograph signing. As RBD prepared to play, some 20,000 fans surged toward the makeshift stage, crushing three women and injuring others.

RBD’s producer, Pedro Damián, has blamed EMI, Pão de Açúcar and São Paulo authorities for not taking proper precautions before the event. But the concert’s organisers deny they were at fault and insist that their security measures prevented what could have been a greater number of deaths. Meanwhile, São Paulo’s police are investigating whether the store was authorised to host the concert in the first place.

Hotheaded

The wild excess of São Paulo’s Carnival season finally simmered down in the early hours of February 28th. This year’s Carnival saw Paulistanos overcome some unexpected odds to participate in the festivities. One school managed to strut in the Carnival parade despite having two of its floats go up in flames three days earlier. In an even greater show of determination, a sambista, Nani Moreira, completed the one-kilometre parade even though her feather head-dress was on fire. (She was doused with water before going to hospital with second-degree burns.) Though Ms Moreira was worse for wear, her bravery was not in vain: her samba school, Mocidade Alegre, won third place in the parade contest. Império de Casa Verde won first place with floats celebrating Brazilian cattle. Among the throngs of wacky revellers were two distinguished figures, Messrs Serra and Alckmin, who came to see their giant puppet alter egos.

Catch if you can

March 2006

Odorico Tavares: my house in Bahia

Until April 30th 2006

Odorico Tavares, a journalist with a passion for the arts, was a tenacious collector who lived in Salvador, on the north-east coast of Brazil. Tavares worked alongside Pierre Verger, a French photographer, and enjoyed the friendship of Brazil’s leading modernist painters. He carefully collected some of their best work, including a series of important portraits by José Pancetti and Emiliano di Calvacanti.

Two exhibitions bring 550 pieces from Tavares’s collection, acquired between 1950 and 1970, to São Paulo: a show at Fiesp highlights painting and religious sculptures, while the Museu Afro-Brasil presents works on paper.

Centro Cultural Fiesp, Galeria de Arte do Sesi, Ave Paulista, 1313. Tel: +55 11 3146-7405. Open: Tues-Sat, 10am-8pm; Sun 10am-7pm. Entrance is free.

Museu Afro-Brasil, Pavillion Padre Manoel da Nóbrega, Ibirapuera Park, Portão 3. Tel: +55 11 5579-0593. Open: Tues-Sun, 10am- 6pm. Entrance is free.

More from the Sao Paulo cultural calendar