Rio samba club patron undeterred by jail stint

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Another Carnaval is in the books. Meantime, politicians, celebrities and others paid post-partying homage to the controversial godfather of the renowned Beija-Flor (Hummingbird) samba school, the incumbent champion of the annual samba parade, reports Folha. Judges named Beija-Flor the winner Wednesday for the second year running. It is an open secret that gambling kingpins known as bicheiros have long supported neighborhood samba schools, whose over-the-top pageants can cost millions of dollars to stage. Accusations even surfaced last year that Carnaval judges may have faced threats; an investigation was inconclusive.

Among the best-known of Rio’s alleged gambling bosses is the legendary Aniz Abrahao David, patron of Beija-Flor. The club cut a samba CD celebrating his career. Fresh out of jail in a corruption case, Anizio, as he is known, received dignitaries and threw hundreds of Beija-Flor T-shirts into the bleachers at the sambodromo, Rio’s samba stadium. ‘I’m very well,’’ Anizio said, according to the Folha report. ‘I have a lot of strength.’’

-- Marcelo Soares in Sao Paulo and Patrick J. McDonnell in Buenos Aires