The spirits that “avoided” rain on Lula’s parade

Brasília’s weather forecast for January 1 was for rains and thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening, according to the National Institute of Meteorology. Those attending the inauguration of new President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were recommended to put a raincoat in their backpacks.

Between the months of October and March, rainfall is frequent in Brasília — and had showered the capital in the days preceding the inauguration. But Lula supporters who flocked to the Esplanade of Ministries on New Year’s Day were gifted with fair weather. At several points throughout the day, they even asked firefighting crews to spray them with water to relieve them from the heat.

Some people might say that the meteorological forecasts simply got it wrong. But the Cacique Cobra Coral Foundation — an entity linked to Umbanda (an Afro-Brazilian religion that believes people can incorporate spirits) and some branches of spiritism — claims to have been responsible for preventing rain clouds on Sunday. It calls itself an “esoteric scientific specialist in climatic events.”

As mind-boggling as this may appear to many readers, the foundation is treated with a heavy degree of seriousness in Brazil. Headquartered in Guarulhos, in the Greater São Paulo Area, the Cacique Cobra Coral has agreements with governments, city halls, and companies to guarantee good weather on special occasions. It also supposedly prevents catastrophes from happening (although recent floods and mudslides may tell a different story).

According to its own representatives, the foundation claims responsibility for fair weather during Jair Bolsonaro’s 2018 inauguration, Barack Obama’s 2011 visit to Brazil, and several editions of the Rock in Rio music festival. It is also employed during the Carnival season.

In 2021, the Mines and Energy Ministry hosted representatives from the foundation to discuss the water crisis Brazil was experiencing. The meeting occurred despite Brazil being a secular country and former First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro having linked Afro-Brazilian religions to satanic cults.

Severe droughts that year led hydroelectric reservoir levels to historic lows and hampered agricultural production in several parts of the country. (At the time, the ministry said the meeting was requested by the foundation and not the government after news of it was met with scorn.)

In 2009, right-wing senators tried to invite the foundation to explain the causes of a weather-related power outage that affected...