Scandals big and small (part 1)

Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest of the president of Brazil’s five children, has been charged in a scandal in Brazil known as rachadinha. (The first three of Bolsonaro’s children - all boys - are in politics themselves and all heavily covered by the news for their own shenanigans and complex public personas. The press often uses the shorthand of referring to these three by their birth order, making Flávio, obviously, #1.) A rachada is a crack or a split, and with the diminutive “-inho” refers to kickbacks where a public servant or government service provider gives some of their remuneration to politicians who have helped them out.

From the BBC in Portuguese: Flávio Bolsonaro (PSL-RJ) and his advisor Fabrício Queiroz “are suspected of organizing a ‘rachadinha’ scheme in the legislator’s office in the State Assembly of Rio de Janeiro. According to the website G1 and the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, the Public Prosecutor determined that Queiroz received R$ 2 million through 483 deposits of cash made by 13 advisors connected to the office of the son of the President of the Republic.

Fabrício Queiroz and Flávio Bolsonaro deny all the allegations.”

So this “little fissure” is actually kind of a big deal…