Tintin hears in the news that Bianca Castafiore, her maid Irma, pianist Igor Wagner, and Thomson

and Thompson have been imprisoned in San Theodoros for allegedly attempting to overthrow the military dictatorship of General Tapioca, who has yet again deposed Tintin's old friend, General Alcazar. Tintin, Calculus, and Haddock soon are accused themselves and, travelling to San Theodoros to clear their names (though Tintin at first refuses, only to change his mind and follow a couple of days later), find themselves caught in a trap laid by their old enemy, Colonel Sponsz, who has been sent by the Eastern Bloc nation ofBorduria to assist Tapioca. Sponsz has concocted the conspiracy of which Tintin and his friends are accused in a plot to wreak revenge upon them for humiliating him in The Calculus Affair. Escaping, Tintin, Haddock, and Calculus join Alcazar and his small band of guerrillas, the Picaros, in the jungle near a village of the Arumbaya people. Meanwhile, in a show trial orchestrated by Sponsz, Castafiore is sentenced to life in prison and the Thompsons are ordered to be executed by a firing squad. All three show great contempt at the injustice of the proceedings. Tintin enlists Alcazar's help in freeing his friends, but upon arrival at his jungle headquarters, finds that Alcazar's men have become corrupt drunkards since Tapioca started dropping copious quantities of alcohol near their camp. Additionally, Alcazar is continually henpecked by his shrewish wife, Peggy, who nags him constantly about his failure to achieve a successful revolution. Fortunately, Calculus has invented a pill that makes alcohol disgusting to anyone who ingests it (which he proves to have tested on Haddock, much to the latter's annoyance). Tintin offers to use the pill to cure the Picaros of their alcoholism if Alcazar agrees to refrain from killing Tapioca and his men. Alcazar reluctantly agrees. Moments after his men are cured, Jolyon Wagg arrives with his musical troupe the Jolly Follies, who intend to perform at the upcoming carnival in San Theodoros. Alcazar, with a little advice from Tintin, launches an assault on Tapioca's palace during the carnival by 'borrowing' the troupe's costumes and sneaking his men into the capital. He topples Tapioca, but on Tintin's urging, does not execute him, as is the tradition. Tapioca is instead forced to publicly surrender his powers to Alcazar, and is banished, while a disappointed Sponsz is sent back to Borduria. Meanwhile, Thomson and Thompson are due to be shot on the same day as the carnival. Although as naive as ever in their observations, the detectives show courage by refusing to be blindfolded. Tintin and Haddock reach the state prison in time to prevent the executions from occurring. Castafiore, her maid, and her pianist are also released, and Alcazar can finally give his wife the palace he has promised. With all matters resolved, Tintin and his friends leave. As they fly home, Tintin and Haddock express gratitude about being able to go home. The second-to-last panel shows a final, skeptical political message: as under Tapioca, the city slums are filled with wretched, starving people and patrolled by apathetic police. Nothing has changed, except the police uniforms and a Viva Tapioca sign that has been changed to read Viva Alcazar.

Tintin and the Picaros features changes in the representation of Tintin. The most visible change is that his trousers have been modernized, as he wears bell bottoms rather than the plus fours that he had always worn previously. In addition, the book introduces some new hobbies that Tintin had not previously engaged in: he is shown practicing yoga in his spare time, and riding a motorbike; his helmet is marked with thePeace symbol. As in The Broken Ear, the original French text of Tintin and the Picaros features an invented language for the Arumbaya Indians that is based on Marols, the Brussels dialect spoken by Herg's grandmother. The English translation replaces this with a language that is a phonetic rendering of Cockney English. When offering food, Chief Avakuki ("'ave a cookie") says "Owzah g'rubai" ("'Ow's the grub, eh?"), "Oozfah sek 'unds" (who's for seconds), "Ava'n ip" ('Ave a nip) and "goh blimeh! Wa'samma ta, li li li va? Lem eshoya!" ("Cor blimey! What's the matter, lily liver? Let me show ya!") Similarly the ancient pyramid featured on the front cover is called Hotwattabotl in the translation (hot water bottle). [edit]Allusions

to other works

During the Carnival, masks and costumes of different cartoon and film characters are seen, such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Asterix, Snoopy, Groucho Marx and Zorro.

Colonels Sponsz and Alvarez in a scene drawn for Tintin and the Picaros, but not included in the final book.

In the course of illustrating the story, Herg found that he had gone beyond the 62-page limit required by his publishers. Therefore, he took out a page that follows the one in which Tintin has shown Haddock all thebugs and hidden cameras in their villa, and Sponsz has told Alvarez how it was he who framed Castafiore. The deleted scene has Sponsz announcing how he will break his enemies and throws his glass to the floor, but it is of the unbreakable variety and bounces back and breaks the moustache of a bust of Krvi-Tasch. Alvarez bursts into laughter, before being put in his place and asked to bring in "you-know-who" (most likely Pablo who appears in the following page). Sponsz suspects that Alvarez will claim that he broke the bust deliberately. He thus warns the young officer about his prospects for advancement. Alvarez gets the message and Sponsz tells him to "sack that clumsy cleaning lady who broke Krvi-Tasch's moustache." The scene was deleted because it was similar to the scene in Flight 714, where Rastapopoulos claims he will crush Tintin like a spider, but then fails to trample the animal.