A medium for the organization that partners with the Brazilian city’s government says the chief she channels commands entities specializing in wind, rain, drought and humidity.
Marília Marasciulo / August 13, 2026
RIO DE JANEIRO (CN) — As Rio de Janeiro prepared for wind gusts of up to 68 mph last Thursday, the city renewed its agreement with the Cacique Cobra Coral Foundation for another 25 years. The organization is led by a medium who says she channels a spirit capable of interfering with the weather.
Published in the city’s Official Gazette on Friday, the no-cost agreement between Rio’s Geotechnical Institute Foundation and the foundation calls for “promoting the dissemination and exchange of information between the parties to enable the provision of technical meteorological assistance.”
Osmar Santos, a spokesperson for the organization, said similar agreements typically take about 20 days to formalize, but the city completed the renewal within hours.
“I have never seen an agreement published in record time,” Santos said. “In other words, when they’re interested, they get it done.”
The renewal came one week after another windstorm hit the city, leaving two people dead and felling trees.
After the storm, the foundation posted on Instagram that its agreement with the city awaited renewal. The post received about 60 comments, most calling to renew the partnership.
“Renew it, mayor. Make it happen!” one user wrote.
Strong winds hit Rio again Friday, but the worst-case forecast did not materialize. The coincidence reinforced a decades-old belief: When a storm threatens Rio, residents ask where Cacique Cobra Coral is. When destructive weather does not materialize, the spirit gets some credit.
Based in Guarulhos, São Paulo state, the foundation says it was founded in 1931 by medium Ângelo Scritori. Federal tax registry data show its opening date as Aug. 13, 1981.
The foundation says it is now led by Adelaide Scritori, the medium’s daughter and Santos’ wife, who began receiving messages from Cacique Cobra Coral at age 7.
The spirit is associated with Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian religion incorporating African and Indigenous traditions, Catholicism and Spiritism. His name roughly means “Chief Coral Snake”: Cacique refers to an Indigenous leader and cobra coral to the snake. The foundation says the chief previously lived as Galileo Galilei and Abraham Lincoln.
Santos described Cacique Cobra Coral as “a spiritual entity who works to address the challenge of the climate on Earth, which is not changing — it has changed.”
“The foundation is not here to forecast the weather or issue storm alerts,” Santos said. “It changes the climate.”
Santos added that the foundation acts only when governments or companies request its assistance and does not serve individuals.
Santos said the foundation helps companies in California and the Midwest and provides long-range weather information to clients trading in Chicago commodities markets before the U.S. Department of Agriculture publishes its reports.
Despite saying the foundation does not forecast weather, Santos claimed it can project conditions more than 30 days in advance. He did not identify the companies or provide evidence.
The foundation says it gets financial support from Tunikito Insurance Brokerage, owned by Santos’ family, and other private companies.
Renzo Taddei, an associate professor of anthropology at the Federal University of São Paulo who conducted ethnographic research with the foundation, said the organization has carved out a distinct place in Brazil’s popular imagination.
“The chief became a personality in Brazilian culture,” Taddei said. “Osmar always worked hard to make that happen. But social media amplified it far beyond anything Osmar could have anticipated.”
During operations, Scritori channels the chief, who speaks with Santos and decides whether to interfere with weather conditions, Santos said. The chief purportedly has a team of specialized spirits, each handling wind, rain, drought or humidity.
The foundation also consults meteorologists, Taddei added. They analyze radar data, forecasts, atmospheric pressure and wind direction to determine what would need to change. Santos then relays the assessment to the chief, who coordinates the work of the other spirits.
If the goal is to prevent rain at Copacabana Beach, the meteorologists might propose shifting wind patterns or atmospheric pressure to hold back a cold front. Then the chief and his team would carry out the change.
During his research, Taddei asked the meteorologists whether their equipment detected signs of the interventions. They said it did, but argued that meteorology did not have the right tools to measure changes.
“Meteorology cannot see the scale at which the chief works,” Taddei said.
The foundation’s relationship with the Rio city government began sometime between 1993 and 1996. Since then, the organization has claimed a role in protecting Copacabana’s New Year’s Eve celebration and Carnival, when millions gather outdoors.
On its website, the foundation also says it provided assistance during the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.
Santos said they must respond to weather-related requests from partner governments. After an operation, the government agency would have 24 hours to report whether the forecast weather event had dissipated and whether there was damage.
More recently, the foundation has brought its services into political disputes.
On July 27, the organization announced it would suspend cooperation with Argentina until President Javier Milei apologized for remarks against Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
On Saturday, one day after Rio published the new agreement, the organization called on U.S. President Donald Trump to resign because “new developments will leave him in an untenable position.”
Santos said the warning referred to the risk of an attack against Trump and that the message came from other spirits connected to the chief’s team, without presenting evidence.
Taddei said the foundation’s public profile contrasts with the place Umbanda has historically occupied in Brazil. The religion and other traditions of African origin maintained a low public profile after decades of persecution, criminalization and racism. Santos adopted the opposite strategy, seeking attention from the press and public officials.
“They challenge a kind of tacit agreement over what should gain visibility in public debate and what should not,” Taddei said. “Osmar brings it into public debate all the time, including by exposing politicians.”
Taddei added that the presence of a spirit in government agreements, major events and international disputes also turns the foundation into part of Brazil’s political spectacle.
“In a way, what the foundation does is carnivalize the institutional order, and Brazilians love that,” Taddei said, citing social media comments that Brazil has its own “Ministry of Magic.”
Wallace Corbo, a constitutional law professor at Rio de Janeiro State University, said the presence of a spiritual entity does not make the partnership inherently unconstitutional.
“Our Constitution has secularism as one of its structural principles, meaning the state cannot impose or restrict the exercise of religious beliefs. But the Brazilian state and the Brazilian Constitution are not hostile to religion,” Corbo said. “There is room for interaction and mutual contribution between religions and the Brazilian state.”
Corbo did not identify religious imposition or preferential treatment for a majority religion in the Cacique Cobra Coral agreement. And it’s free.
“We are dealing much more with a type of religious celebration than with an imposition, restriction or discrimination in the religious sphere,” Corbo said.
The Rio mayor’s office did not respond to requests for information about the agreement.
Courthouse News reporter Marília Marasciulo is based in Brazil.
Uma (in)certa antropologia 