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Daslu, a luxury department store for the Brazilian wealthy in São Paulo was raided by the Brazilian Federal Police and Tax agents yesterday (story at Bloomberg . One of the owners was arrested by the police, but was out after 10 hours or so. (For a background on Daslu, see this Christian Science Monitor piece )

What annoys me in the story, is the response of the FIESP (Industry Federation of São Paulo):

‘A prisão antecipada, sem sentença, seja qual for sua natureza, só pode ter lugar para os infratores perigosos que ameaçam a ordem pública, que causam prejuízos irreparáveis à sociedade e à própria segurança dos processos judiciais’

(translation: The anticipated arrest, without sentence, whichever its nature, only can have place for the dangerous infractors that threaten the public order, that causes irreparable damages to the society and the proper security of the judicial processes.)

First of all, Daslu is not an “industry” so it is unclear to me why FIESP is trying to get involved (perhaps due to pressures from the wifes of the honorable gentlemen?) More importantly, what they are saying is that prison is not for the rich. One of the many times I am not proud at all of being Brazilian.

On other news, the latest poll (original report in Portuguese here indicate that President popularity and intention to vote was not affected by the corruption scandal.

The report has no breakdown by income or region, but I would be interested to see if there has been any increase in polarization by class. Some class based politics, as long as the economy is handled responsibly, is exactly what the country needs.