Were black magic rituals all in a day's work for Brazil's ex-president?

A former first lady says her ex-husband took part in basement rites and animal sacrifices

A FORMER first lady of Brazil has told how her ex-husband carried out black magic rituals in their home while he was president of the country to gain protection from his political enemies.

Rosane Collor says former Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello took part in the rituals in the basement of their Brasília mansion. They were led by a Brazilian shaman who has since become an evangelical Christian.

Ms Collor said her husband would isolate himself in the basement for up to three days wearing white robes. As part of the rituals, chickens and cattle were sacrificed in cemeteries, though not at the family home. Ms Collor said her former husband was seeking political protection from the rituals.

“Because he believed that people wished harm on him, doing this, the harm people sent to him would rebound,” she said in a television interview aired on Sunday night.

Accusations of black magic rituals taking place in the presidential home were first made by Collor’s estranged brother, Pedro Collor, in 1992 at the height of the political crisis that ended with the president being forced from office.

Pedro Collor died two years later from cancer of the brain. His former sister-in-law raised the possibility that the deaths of several people close to her ex-husband were the result of the “Curse of Collor”.

“I believe in the curse, that when you wish harm for someone, this can happen,” she said.

Ms Collor admitted she participated in some of the rituals when she first met her husband but she has since become a born-again Christian.

In 1989 Collor became the first civilian to be elected president after more than a quarter of a century of military rule. His candidacy was heavily promoted by Brazil’s elite as a means of seeing off the challenge from the radical union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. But Collor was forced to quit in December 1992 after 33 months in power as Brazil’s congress prepared to vote to finalise his impeachment for corruption.

His former wife also alleged he lied in his defence during the impeachment proceedings. She claimed he regularly met Paulo César Farias, his presidential campaign treasurer and the man later identified as the frontman for the president’s various corruption schemes.

Collor claimed he had no dealings with Farias after he became president, but his former wife said they met once a week at their home in Brasília, meetings which only ceased once the corruption scandal broke in the media. Farias and his girlfriend were later found shot dead in a bedroom in mysterious circumstances.

Ms Collor’s revelations about her husband’s use of black magic rituals drew criticism. “The ‘bombastic’ interview . . . only serves to strengthen old prejudices against religions of African origin,” said Jean Wyllys, a former winner of the country’s version of Big Brother who is now a left-wing deputy in congress.

The former first lady was also ridiculed for complaining about her monthly alimony payments of €7,250 from Collor, which she said was a small amount considering the lifestyle he maintained.

Following impeachment Collor was suspended from political life until 2006. Once the ban ended he returned to Brasília as a senator for his home state of Alagoas. He backed the government of his former rival Lula and today is a supporter of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.

He sits on the congressional committee investigating the connections between politicians and organised crime boss Carlos Augusto Ramos, better known as Carlinhos Cachoeira (Charlie Waterfall).

As a result of the investigation, last week opposition senator Demóstenes Torres became only the second person to be expelled from the senate in its 188-year history. Under Brazilian electoral law he was quickly replaced by Wilder Pedro de Morais, whose wife previously left him for Cachoeira. Morais’s own business dealings with Cachoeira could still come under investigation by the congress.

Immediately after his expulsion from the senate, the disgraced Torres resumed his career as a public prosecutor in his home state of Goiás.

After a 13-year leave of absence he is entitled to a monthly salary of €9,700. One of his principle tasks as a prosecutor will be to tackle corruption.