Militias in Rio's Favelas

BBC News ran a very good report about militias in the favelas this week. I've commented before on how corrupt police are often extorting civilians and using violence against them when the favelados speak out, sometimes in an extremely gruesome fashion, and any arrests against police corruption strike me more as an effort to look like the police are trying to clean up, rather than any real effort at reform. In this light, the BBC article is one of the best I've seen yet in really getting into the details of how militias (which, as the article alludes to, are generally corrupt officers and ex-cops trying to make extra money in the favelas) operate, and the consequences of their presence.

There are several comments I'd like to make on this. First, the people interviewed in the article (and the article itself) make it seem as though it's a question of drug lords vs. militias, but it's not so simple. Often times, these militias end up becoming involved in the drug trade too, unable to deny the lure of the money they can make. They have even gotten in turf wars with drug dealers in other favelas in the past. Likewise, drug gangs also offer health services, internet, and "protection" to the favelados, sometimes (though not always) as extortion. So presuming that it's an "either/or" proposition distorts a much more complex dynamic involving "protection" and the drug trade.

Secondly, you see rhetoric throughout the article, both from those for and against the militias, that the state can't exercise its control in the favelas, and this fact either justifies or explains the presence of the militias, depending on which side of the argument one falls. However, I really don't see how this is the case, and nobody offers a good explanation of why the state can't. Rather, I think the state simply doesn't. Although there have been some changes in administration under Sérgio Cabral, governors in Rio (and it is more their jurisdiction than the federal government's) have tended to offer no social services for the favelas (the only exception to this being Leonel Brizola, who worked heavily on infrastructure such as roads, electricity, plumbing, and schools in the favelas in his two terms as governor from 1983-1987 and 1991-1994). At best, governors pop up in the favelas when it is election season to act like they "care," but afterwards, it's usually a mixture of ignoring the social needs of the favelados and sending in the police to tackle the drug gangs. Neither of these approaches really shows any strong effort of the state to effect change, nor do they explain why the state "can't." As Brizola's administration and recent concerted efforts to follow up police action with social programs in São Paulo demonstrate, it's not that the state can't; it's that the state chooses not to.

Thirdly, given that the militias are already basically extorting favelados, suffice to say that I find politician Jair Bolsonaro's proposal in that the state should suport them...less than satisfactory. For all of the absurdities within the argument (ignoring the extortion, believing militias automatically reduce violence in all situations, the fact that militias don't really bring any significant social changes to the favelas), perhaps the most ridiculous is the argument that the state should support the militias because of the rhetoric above that it can't patrol the favelas itself. If the state has the money to support the militias, why not just fund your own state employees to establish control in the favelas?

Finally, I think the treatment of BOPE is problematic. The article cites residents who live in the Tavares Bastos favela, which is right next to the BOPE elite police headquarters, as speaking highly of what BOPE has done for them. While the proximity of BOPE no doubt has an effect, both the residents of Tavares Bastos and the article more broadly make its eem as though BOPE is a great force of change, not subject to the problems of the regular police, an image further propagated in the recent film Tropa de Elite, and as both Venha Futuro and I have commented, that is far from the case.

Overall, though, the article is one of the first and best I've seen at dealing with the militias in the favelas, an overall underdiscussed subject. I suspect the militias don't come up as much for many reasons (they don't fit neatly within the "drug lords-vs.-noble cops" narrative; they undermine the notion that the problems in the favelas are due only to poverty, race, or the drug gangs; nobody in Brazil knows how to or is willing to deal with the widespread social problems that result in cops going crooked; etc). It's really good to see BBC dealing with it, particularly using the terms they use ("take over;" "kind of dictatorship"), and it's really worth reading.

More on Jails and Police Impunity in Brazil

I wrote about this a few weeks ago, but the NY Times has finally gotten around to putting up an article that actually has some extra info not available the first time the story made its way into the North American media. For those who missed this the first time around, a 15-year-old girl was accused of petty theft, and ended up in a prison with grown men, where for almost 4 weeks, she was tortured and raped, sometimes in exchange for food, sometimes for no reason, by her male cellmates. Police not only ignored her screams for help, they shaved her head to make her look like a boy and now, in one of the worst "defenses" for any event ever, are saying it's not their fault because she has lied about being only 13.

I've written often about the horrible police system that employs murder and torture with impunity in Brazil often, but usually in the context of favelas in Rio (see here, here, and here, for example). However, it should be clear that the problem with police in Brazil is not a Rio-only or favela-only issue. They have employed torture against prisoners (particularly the darker-skinned and poorer) since at least the late-19th century (and that doesn't include slavery, which was only abolished in 1888 but which has undoubtedly had a direct social role on the presence of torture to this date). Prisoners' rights are thrown out the window in a double-standard system in which the wealthy and well-off can serve their time without ever actually going to jail (and that's only IF they are brought to trial, which in itself is extremeley rare) while the poor languish in overcrowded prisons, subject to gang violence, police violence, torture, and inhumane conditions.

And the police continue to act with impunity across the country. In this particular case, the girl and her family have been forced to relocate under a federal witness protection agency due to death threats they have received from the police, who have threatened to kill members of her family if the family doesn't "admit" the girl is 19 or 20. Indeed, when the story first broke, her father said he was told he would be killed if he didn't get the document "proving" her age to be 19 or 20, to which he said (via the media), "How can I give them a document that doesn't exist?" And the worst part in all of this is, while I have no doubt the federal government is sincere in its concern over this case and its broader implications for Brazil's prison system, the atrocities are so deep and so long-standing and institutionalized that I just really don't see any changes coming in a long time, if ever.

Over 50 Rio de Janeiro Police Arrested

Monday, 56 cops from Duque de Caxias were arrested for their involvement in the drug trade (Duque de Caxias is a part of greater Rio de Janeiro), providing yet another example in which the police are as much (if not moreso) a source of the violence in the favelas as the actual drug lords are. The media is (of course) swarming all over this story, but failing to provide any real analysis, instead relying on the straightforward "X-number cops charged with Y crimes" without asking why they would turn to such activities (despite the arrest of over 120 officers in Rio alone this year, it's just some "rogue" elements, instead of a broader issue of low pay, poverty, and power coming together).

I previously commented on my skepticism that any authorities in Rio (the city or the state) would ever really do anything important about this issue, yet once again, governor Sergio Cabral has come out, saying this will not stand and future cases will also be dealt with harshly. I'm still not sure that this is going to amount to much in the way of policy-change in how Rio uses its police in the favelas, but given that this arrest of 53 officers follows the arrest of another 70+ in January is at least giving some evidence that the government has the will to combat corruption and violence within the police force. Of course, it's still just rhetoric, and any real policy has yet to come out. Likewise, the efforts to curb police violence thus far have only involved those involved in the drug trade, or those committing such heinous violence that it can't go unnoticed (as was the case with the dismemberment of José Silva last week, or when it became clear in June that two cops unprovokedly punched an unarmed guy in the face and then shot him dead in February) - they haven't extended to punishment for the shooting of civilians in gun-battles in the favelas.

I still agree with one commenter on Globo's webpage, who said the problem is at the top of the police force, not the bottom, and that these arrests were just "For the English to see" ("pra inglês ver"). Still, if Cabral (or other leaders of the government) start implementing policy that affects change throughout the police force on top of these arrests, things may start changing here. I remain skeptical, but the picture is different than it was just 10 months ago.

Police Violence against the Poor Hits a New Low

I've written repeatedly before about the out-of-control police violence against the urban poor in Brazil, with the poor often deprived of their most basic rights in a "democratic" society and the police's ability to occupy favelas, attack, and kill innocents with virtually complete impunity (see here, here, and here, for just the recent examples). Yet events in the last two weeks have gotten extremely ugly.

José da Silva Siqueira Neto, president of the Kelson's Favela Residents' Association (Associação de Moradores da Favela Kelson's - Kelson's is the name of his particular favela, in the North Zone of Rio) had recently come out in the media against police violence and corruption. Neto refused to pay the police the "cover" to make sure "nothing would happen" to him (straight out of a mafia movie - "pay us the money, and we won't hurt you"), and so the police kicked him out of his home. Neto went to the media, proclaiming that not only do the police rely heavily on such tactics in the favelas. They also apparently will illegally provide the favelas with illegal cable connections, and then charge the favelados themselves for said connection, basically serving as the ad-hoc cable network (while basically stealing the cable directly from the network). As a result, four policemen were arrested two weeks ago.

However, as should come as little surprise, "justice" for police here is radically different than for the poor (a case proven in the last few months when it became public that two police officers had first punched in the face and then shot dead a motorcyclist who was unarmed and did nothing to provoke the police. The cops were arrested in February, but released soon thereafter. Charges still haven't made their way to the courts yet). Thus, last Monday, the four cops arrested after Neto's charges were released.

By Friday, Neto was missing.

On Monday, they found what officials believe to be Neto's remains. They believe it to be his remains because, after he was killed, he was cut up into so many pieces they are going to have to do DNA testing to make sure it was him.

It's not hard to figure out exactly what happened here - a civic leader from a favela makes a public denunciation of police, followed by their very brief arrest, followed by their release, followed by Neto's disappearance, murder, and extreme and gruesome dismemberment. Sergio Cabral, Rio's governor, has spoken out against this type of violence, saying it won't go unpunished (and two policeman do await charges), but again, I'll believe it when I see it (especially given the release of the other two murdering cops in February).

And of course, while this story was national news Monday morning, by Monday afternoon it disappeared when, in the North Zone, somebody opened fire on a passing train that was carrying several ministers going to inspect the favelas. The gunner did not know that the ministers were on the train, but that hasn't stopped the media from being all over the story. It should come as no surprise to anybody that a story of police violence against an innocent leader in a favela who is killed and dismembered is far less important than the story of somebody shooting at a train with ministers, where nobody was killed, or even hurt.

It may seem harsh, but given the widespread corruption (the case of the cable in Kelson's is not an isolated incident among a few "rogue elements"), the perverse violation of basic rights (randomly strip-searching favelados, including children and the elderly, when they leave the favelas) and the sheer system of violence wherein favelados are criminals yet police can kill "traficantes" without any questions, there really seems no solution forthcoming to this problem. Obviously, we could actually try things like oversight, but given Brazil's general antipathy towards the poverty question, that's not likely. Nor is the fact of anybody suddenly firing any and every police officer who may be involved in corruption, extortion, or murder in the favelas - the police force would doubtlessly be decimated in numbers. And a straight-up dismantling of the entire police system and starting over from scratch, while perhaps is the most effective solution, is also the most unrealistic. Thus, favelados and civic leaders of the favelas (not the traficantes - innocent civilians) remain at grave risk of daily extortion, murder, and even dismemberment, while the police will probably continue to be unpunished. Justice and democracy in Brazil, in many ways, are simply dead.