to the electoral timetable for 2003." If that is true, the governor joined the ranks of politicians in other Brazilian states who have capitulated to threats, police strikes and rebellions, and even police-induced crime waves. Although Brazil is a healthy democracy in many respects, the seeming omnipotence of police forces in such political clashes shows that the power of civilian leaders has alarming limits. "The police in any given state have the power to destabilize, to bring the state government to its knees," said independent human rights advocate James Cavallaro, until recently the representative of Human Rights Watch in Brazil. "It's a form of a coup." Debate Where Once There Was None Nonetheless, Cavallaro and others say, Soares pushed the issue to the forefront of the political debate. "He had an incredible year because he created an agenda for police which was not there before in terms of very concrete institutional changes," said Rubem Cesar Fernandes, a sociologist who founded the influential Viva Rio civic coalition with Soares seven years ago. The repercussions continue. A special state commission is investigating the charges Soares filed in March against top commanders, including current chief Rafik Louzada. Among the alleged crimes: "selling" lucrative police districts to aspiring commanders, taking payoffs from all-powerful drug and gambling mafias, releasing criminals in exchange for bribes, and wiretapping. Numerous officers have been charged, disciplined or investigated in several ongoing probes of the investigative, or "civil," police, which in Brazil is separate from the uniformed patrol force. In a toughly worded editorial in April, the Jornal do Brasil newspaper called for the chief's ouster, declaring, "The governor . . . keeps a man in command of the police about whom doubts are accumulating." Nonetheless, Gov. Garotinho stands by Chief Louzada. The governor insists that the cleanup has not suffered since Soares' departure. While giving his former aide credit for designing the reforms, Garotinho says Soares was an inexperienced administrator who was not up to the massive task of transforming police culture. "It is not true that there is any kind of alliance with the so-called Rotten Bunch--our government has always, and he knows this, insisted on cleaning up the police," Garotinho declared in his written responses to questions from The Times. "[Soares] did not have the patience to see the reforms become concrete." The governor's popularity remains an impressive 71%, down from 78% in September. He is 40, a former champion chess player and a member of the evangelical Christian community, whose clout is growing in Brazil. His undeclared campaign for the presidency is progressing at full steam. If he indeed runs for the office, however, his law enforcement woes are likely to receive renewed national attention. Critics say the governor and Soares failed to recognize that police corruption is integral to a profoundly corrupt political structure in the state of Rio, which has a population of about 12.5 million. "All this was an electoral facade, and Luiz Eduardo allowed himself to be the governor's propaganda boy," declared state legislator Helio Luz, a 25-year police veteran who was a reformist