What is "liesa"

The Liga Independente das Escolas de Samba do Rio de Janeiro – Independent League of the Samba Schools of Rio de Janeiro – or LIESA is the principal association that organizes the Carnival of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Disgruntled with the official league, the Associação das Escolas de Samba da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro (AESCRJ), representatives of ten samba schools, led by bicheiros, helped found the LIESA in 1984. They were not in agreement with the state of things in the AESCRJ, where they were a minority and always defeated in deliberations although they invested the money. Each attempt to improve the commercial success of the Carnival spectacle was being rejected. They formed an independent league, which eventually took over the organisation of the parades of the Rio Carnival. The bicheiro Castor de Andrade was the first president of LIESA.

Each year, the schools promoted by the Grupo de Acesso to the top league of the Special Group become affiliated to LIESA. All other schools are affiliated with the AESCRJ.

In 2007, LIESA experienced one of the worst crises of its history, with the arrest of various of its leaders, such as Capitão Guimarães and Anísio Abraão David, during Operation Hurricane by the Brazilian Federal Police. An inquiry was installed in the council of the city of Rio de Janeiro to investigate the accusations of corruption.

One of the charges was that underworld figures fixed the results of Rio de Janeiro's 2007 carnival parade. Press reports suggest that Anísio Abraão David, the honorary president of Beija-Flor that won the competition, used bribes and a hitman to buy and intimidate members of the carnival jury. According to extracts from a federal police report, "some individuals who worked as carnival jurors and refused to accept benefits from Anisio were threatened or had their relatives threatened with death if the Beija-Flor school did not win the 2007 carnival".

On July 14, 2007, a new administration was elected, culminating in the return of Jorge Castanheira as president of the league.