Lava Jato did not stop corruption.

The news that, in the two years since Operation Lava Jato began, corruption in Brazil has not been stopped, according to Transparency International, and that the country has dropped three positions in the ranking of the most corrupt countries in the world, received little attention in the press.

Most people, including the Yellow Duck worshippers and the so-called "mainstream press," prefer to continue treating the Operation as something almost sacrosanct and its commander, Sergio Moro, as the most likely candidate for the title of savior of the nation.

The lucid voices of this country seem to have fallen silent. Rationality is losing ground every day to hysteria, euphoria, and the "hope" that, when all the corrupt are in jail, we will be free from this plague, responsible for our misery, our backwardness, and our ignorance.

Like horses that only look ahead because of their blinders and pull the carriage at breakneck speed without knowing where they're going, we continue to invest energy and all the money necessary to put corrupt people behind bars, and we don't care at all about our backwardness in education and technology, two fundamental factors in the equation that resulted in the prosperity of countries that were behind us a few years ago on the development podium and now far surpass us.

The country is still not convinced – and perhaps never will be – that fighting corruption is like fighting international drug trafficking: the more money invested in this thankless struggle that has turned into a war, the more the consumption of hard drugs increases, along with the number of deaths and injuries.

Regarding drugs, the solution is, apparently, simpler and is already being adopted in countries with less prejudiced and more intelligent authorities who are gradually legalizing consumption, cultivation, and free trade.

It is clear that corruption cannot be fought by legalizing theft. That would be every man for himself.

However, it is important to consider that a practice that has become a tradition in Brazil since around 1808, with the arrival of Dom João VI, cannot be eradicated overnight thanks to police interventions whose cost to public coffers we don't even know.

It's important to understand that, just as drugs are not a police matter but a matter of health and education, the fight against corruption cannot be limited to repression; education and awareness that one cannot take what is not mine or try to take advantage of everything play an important role.

And if it has existed for over 200 years, it will only gradually decrease as Brazilians become aware that it harms the whole society.

It must be monitored, obviously, and punished, but not with the brutality, authoritarianism, and anything-goes approach of Lava Jato.

Corruption – which can also be defined as the spurious relationship between public and private interests – has subtleties that the police are unable to detect and hides in places above suspicion, amidst receptions, banquets and dinners, some of which are published in the society pages of our major newspapers.

Today, for example, Mônica Bergamo's column in Folha de S. Paulo reports and shows photos of a dinner that Milu Villela offered to the Minister of Culture, Roberto Freire, at her private residence.

They are two people with clean pasts and presents, well-intentioned and dedicated to culture; their names have never appeared on any list from Odebrecht, Camargo Corrêa, or any of the other companies. And, by all indications, they never will.

However, Dona Milu, one of the largest shareholders of Itaú bank and president of Itaú Cultural, is also one of the largest fundraisers through the Rouanet Law, which is managed by the Ministry of Culture.

It is not a crime to spend a few pleasant hours eating and drinking the best of everything, in good company, but, for the sake of transparency, it would be reasonable to expect that two people of such importance and caliber, true moral pillars of the nation, would maintain a respectable distance from each other, so that a social gathering punctuated by smiles and pleasantries would not appear to be a reciprocation for something from the past, present or future.

This close relationship between public and private agents, even when explicitly stated in widely circulated newspapers, as if to demonstrate that they have nothing to hide, contributes to generating assumptions, distrust, and suspicions that no brutal police operation would be able to understand, analyze, or stop.

I only mentioned this dinner because I plan to invite Roberto Freire to a reception at my house.

PS: I don't have any projects registered under the Rouanet Law.