MACEIO, Brazil (AP) -- When Congresswoman Ceci Cunha, her husband
                  and two relatives were murdered with blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun,
                  residents were not too surprised.

                  In Alagoas state, politics is a high-risk business.

                  "You don't have robberies in the streets here. You can walk along the beach
                  at any time of night and you won't have problems," said state Assemblyman
                  Paulo Fernando. "If you don't get involved in politics, you will live a long
                  time."

                  Since 1990, Alagoas has seen 10 headline-grabbing political assassinations
                  and at least 7,000 lower-profile killings. Most state legislators wear
                  bullet-proof vests to work and travel only with armed bodyguards.

                  But beyond Alagoas, the December murder of Cunha has aroused national
                  outrage. The charges brought against the suspected mastermind -- another
                  Alagoas politician -- have sparked a campaign to abolish a law giving
                  legislators protection from criminal prosecution.

                  For centuries, the tiny state of sugar plantations on Brazil's northeastern
                  coast has played a bigger role in national affairs than its size and poverty
                  might suggest.

                  Nicknamed "the field marshal state," Alagoas has produced a string of top
                  generals and three presidents. Among them was President Fernando Collor
                  de Mello, who was impeached on corruption charges in 1992.

                  But the powerful elite of sugar barons has ruthlessly clung to power, using
                  hired gunmen to eliminate opposition. Killing became commonplace.

                  "In Alagoas, people go to a pistolero like people in other states would go to
                  a doctor or a dentist," said Pedro Montenegro of the local human rights
                  group Permanent Forum Against Violence.

                  Montenegro said 65 percent of murder investigations in Alagoas never
                  produce a single suspect and cases that do go to trial seldom result in prison
                  time.

                  The ruling elite has its own brand of justice.

                  In 1962, Collor's father, Sen. Arnon de Mello, fatally shot a colleague on the
                  Senate floor, but the killing was ruled accidental because he was aiming at
                  someone else. A few years ago, the son of Gov. Geraldo Bulhoes shot an
                  employee twice in the back, but a court called it self-defense.

                  When Collor in 1991 announced his separation from his wife, Rosane, the
                  daughter of backwoods clan chief Joao Malta, the patriarch reportedly
                  summoned his son-in-law and told him there were no divorcees in the Malta
                  family -- only widows. The Collors are still married.

                  In the Cunha case, prosecutors contend Talvane Albuquerque, the chief
                  suspect, was following the state's tradition of ruthlessness. As first runner-up
                  in last October's congressional elections, Albuquerque was in line to take
                  over a seat if any of the state's elected representatives vacated theirs.

                  Five days after the Cunha killing, another Alagoas congressman, Augusto
                  Farias, came forward with taped phone conversations that he said implicated
                  Albuquerque in a murder plot. In the tapes, Albuquerque and a notorious
                  hired gunman known as "Leather Hat" apparently discuss killing Farias.

                  Albuquerque greets Leather Hat, whose real name is Mauricio Novaes, as
                  "my old friend." Using code, the two discuss the number of men needed for
                  the job.

                  "With baldy, right?" asked Leather Hat, an apparent reference to the bald
                  Farias. Albuquerque concurred.

                  Farias alleged Albuquerque had learned the plot against Farias had been
                  discovered and made Cunha his new target.

                  Not everyone is convinced by the accusations of Farias, who is no stranger
                  to scandal. He was accused of destroying evidence in the killing of his
                  brother Paulo Cesar Farias -- Collor's campaign treasurer and bagman who
                  was shot to death in 1996, shortly after serving a prison sentence for
                  corruption.

                  But prosecutors say Albuquerque coveted a congressional seat because of
                  the law that gives Brazilian elected officials immunity from criminal
                  prosecution while in office. He had been accused of defrauding the federal
                  health care system and needed to be in office to avoid prosecution, they say.

                  The prospect of immunity leads many shady characters to run for office in
                  Brazil. A dozen congressmen now in office have been charged with felonies
                  and 18 others face lesser charges.

                  Among them is Hildebrando Pascoal, of the western Amazon state of Acre.
                  Prosecutors have compiled a 700-page dossier accusing Pascoal of heading
                  an extermination squad responsible for at least 30 deaths. So far, Congress
                  has declined to open expulsion proceedings against Pascoal.

                  Albuquerque wasn't so lucky. On April 7, Congress voted 427-29 to expel
                  him for "lack of parliamentary decorum" for consorting with Leather Hat.
                  Federal agents, who had surrounded Albuquerque's house as Congress met,
                  arrested him as soon as the vote was over.

                  Albuquerque is charged with plotting Cunha's killing. Four of his aides, who
                  fled the state after the murder, have been arrested and charged with the
                  actual killings.

                  Albuquerque denies involvement. He says he wouldn't have had Cunha
                  killed precisely because he had everything to lose.

                  "Whoever killed Cunha knew that I would be automatically incriminated, for
                  being her longtime enemy and for being next in line for her seat,"
                  Albuquerque said in a telephone interview from Brasilia, the national capital.

                  He said Farias used to brag about knowing how to commit the perfect
                  murder and might have used the opportunity to frame him for the Cunha
                  killing.

                  Few Alagoans discount that idea out of hand, and many have theories of
                  their own.

                  A friend of Cunha's cast suspicion at former Gov. Manoel Gomes de
                  Barros, who reportedly blamed Cunha for dropping off his gubernatorial
                  ticket and costing him re-election in October.

                  Others point at Divaldo Suruagy, another former governor who resigned in
                  1997 after a protest by unpaid state police led to rioting and shootouts at the
                  state assembly. Suruagy also is in line for Cunha's seat.

                  Alagoas Sen. Teotonio Vilela said that if Albuquerque is tried and the killers
                  punished, it could help dispel the state's reputation for lawlessness -- a rap
                  that Vilela claims is unfair.

                  "Alagoas acquired a stigma after Collor," he said. "Since then it's just been a
                  string of unfortunate coincidences."

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.