''A Privataria Tucana'' is a book written by

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Amaury Ribeiro Jr., a former special reporter of weekly magazine '' ISTOÉ'' and daily newspaper ''

O Globo ''O Globo'' (, ''The Globe'') is a Brazilian newspaper based in Rio de Janeiro. ''O Globo'' is the leading daily newspaper in the country and the most prominent print publication in the Grupo Globo media conglomerate. Founded by journalist Ir ...

'' who has won several

Esso Journalism Award ''ExxonMobil Journalism Award'' (''Prêmio ExxonMobil de Jornalismo''), previously known as Esso Journalism Award (''Prêmio Esso de Jornalismo''), formerly known as Esso Reportage Award (''Prêmio Esso de Reportagem''), is an annual Brazilian jou ...

s. The Portuguese title comes from ''privataria'', a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

combining "

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

" and "

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

" and ''tucano'' is a common nickname given to members of the

Brazilian Social Democracy Party The Brazilian Social Democracy Party (, PSDB), also known as the Brazilian Social Democratic Party or the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy,. is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Brazil. As the formerly third largest p ...

from one of the symbols of the party, the

toucan Toucans (, ) are Neotropical birds in the family Ramphastidae. They are most closely related to the Semnornis, Toucan barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful Beak, bills. The family includes five genus, genera and over ...

bird.

Synopsis

The book highlights documents that show supposed irregularities in privatizations that occurred during the administration of the PSDB under former President

Fernando Henrique Cardoso Fernando Henrique Cardoso (; born 18 June 1931), also known by his initials FHC (), is a Brazilian sociologist, professor, and politician who served as the 34th president of Brazil from 1 January 1995 to 1 January 2003. He was the first Brazi ...

and that friends and relatives of the PSDB's ex presidential candidate

José Serra José Serra Chirico (; born 19 March 1942) is a Brazilian politician who has served as a Congressman, Senator, Minister of Planning, Minister of Health, Mayor of São Paulo, Governor of São Paulo state, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Brazil) ...

held companies in tax shelters and moved millions of dollars between 1993 and 2003. It contains about 140 pages of photocopied documents trying to demonstrate that President Cardoso's Minister of Planning and later

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

received

kickbacks A kickback is a form of negotiated bribery in which a commission is paid to the bribe-taker in exchange for services rendered. Generally speaking, the remuneration (money, goods, or services handed over) is negotiated ahead of time. The kickback ...

from businessmen that participated in the privatization process.

Controversy

The books is one of the biggest

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian publishing phenomenon in recent years. Although not too explored by Brazil's mainstream media, it sold 15,000 copies in one day (the whole first edition becoming a best seller by Brazil's editorial standards) and 120,000 copies in a month. It produced waves in

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

and among

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

gers and alternative media publications, which questioned the silence of mainstream media. José Serra called as soon as the book was published and strongly requested the bookselling company to set apart their entire stock of the book. According to an employee who preferred not to be identified, they refused to accede to Serra's request. According to the book, Serra's entire family was involved in a corruption scheme of diverting

public funds Government spending or expenditure includes all government consumption, investment, and transfer payments. In national income accounting, the acquisition by governments of goods and services for current use, to directly satisfy the individual o ...

to offshore financial centres in fiscal paradises and money laundering. Dep. Delegado Protógenes Queiroz ( PCdoB) presented a petition to install a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

to investigate privatizations carried out by the Cardoso administration (1995–2002). His motivation was the book.

References

{{reflist 2011 non-fiction books Brazilian non-fiction books Privatization in Brazil