Brazilian TV host probed over murders
Wallace Souza boosted his ratings while eliminating rival drug dealers, police say.
SAO PAULO, Brazil - In one murder after another, the Canal Livre TV show had an uncanny knack for being first on the scene, gathering graphic footage of the victim.
Too uncanny, say police, who are investigating the show's host, state legislator and accused drug trafficker Wallace Souza, on suspicion of commissioning at least five of the murders to boost his ratings and prove his claim that Brazil's Amazon region is awash in violent crime.
"The order to execute always came from the legislator and his son, who then alerted the TV crews to get to the scene before the police," state police intelligence chief Thomaz Vasconcelos alleged in an interview.
The killings of competing drug traffickers, he said, "appear to have been committed to get rid of his rivals and increase the audience of the TV show."
Souza's attorney, Francisco Balieiro, said his client vehemently denies the accusations. Balieiro said that political opponents were trying to smear him and that the only witness was a disgraced police officer hoping for leniency in nine murders he is charged with.
"There is not one piece of material proof in these accusations," Balieiro said.
Vasconcelos said the accusations stemmed from the testimony of several former employees and security guards who worked with the Souzas, allegedly as part of a gang of former police officers involved in drug trafficking.
Souza's son Rafael has been jailed on charges of homicide, drug trafficking, and illegal gun possession.
Police said Wallace Souza faced charges of drug trafficking, gang formation, and weapons possession, but has not been charged with any killings.
Souza remains free because of legislative immunity that prevents him from being arrested as long as he is a lawmaker. He is being investigated by a special task force, and state judicial authorities will decide whether the case goes forward.
Vasconcelos said the crimes appeared to have served the Souzas in two ways: They eliminated drug-trafficking rivals, and they boosted ratings.
"We believe that they organized a kind of death squad to execute rivals who disputed with them the drug-trafficking business," he said. Souza, he said, "would eliminate his rival and use the killing as a news story for his program."
Souza became a media personality after a career as a police officer that ended in disgrace, according to Vasconcelos, who said the lawmaker was fired for involvement in scams involving fuel theft and pension fraud.
He started Canal Livre in 1989 on a local commercial station in Manaus, the capital of Brazil's largely lawless Amazonas state.
The show became extremely popular among Manaus' 1.7 million residents before going off the air late last year as police intensified their investigation.
Canal Livre featured Souza, in a studio, railing against rampant crime in the state, punctuated with often exclusive footage of arrests, crime scenes, and drug seizures.
"When I became a police officer in 1979, bandits weren't raised in this city - no way," he told the audience in one show. Brazil was then a dictatorship, whose police ruthlessly targeted criminals with little concern for civil rights.