Brazil: A Vicious Cycle of Drug trafficking, Violence, Police Brutality and Corruption in Rio de Janeiro
HISTORY
Before the European exploration, Latin America was rich with civilizations. Each of these cultures thrived in the territory they habited utilizing the land and the environment. These cultures worked as communities on communal land providing resources for everybody. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, on expedition for Spain, discovered the Americas by accident when looking for a quicker trade route to India. Subsequent to voyages back and forth between the two countries, the Spanish began to realize the extreme wealth that the newly discovered land had to offer. The Spanish initially colonized in the Caribbean region giving them access to ports, and then swiftly moved inland to Central America where the Aztecs were annihilated. Within fifteen years after the defeat of the central region, the Spanish quickly swooped down into the southern expanse and began taking over the once dominating Inca culture. In less than fifteen years after the initial date of discovery the Spanish had moved into the Americas with force and had decimated even the strongest of the indigenous cultures (Blouet & Blouet).
With the discovery of these new lands, and the realization of wealth that could be prospered from them, other Europeans began coming to the Americas with hopes of becoming equally successful. The success of Spain’s cultural domination influenced other countries to pursue South America. For example, the Portuguese refocused their attention from successful colonization in Africa to their land claim in Brazil. The land was then redistributed to Europeans under new laws leaving the remaining indigenous homeless (Blouet & Blouet). The rise of colonization, plantations, mines, and agriculture brought about the significant need for labour. The Europeans not only used the remaining homeless indigenous people as slaves but had also brought over slave labour from conquests in Africa. Slave labour encouraged the wealthy Europeans to grow significantly richer while oppressing the underprivileged. This mistreatment of the peoples continued until the mid nineteenth century when slavery was abolished due to slave rebellion and liberal thinking. However, the wealthy landowners remained wealthy and the poor, now no longer slaves, remained landless and unemployed.
By the twentieth century, extreme lack of land, food, services, and unemployment caused mass movements of people towards the urban centers in hopes for survival. Illegal shantytowns, or favelas, filled with rudely constructed huts developed around the major cities. Unfortunately, these masses could not penetrate the control of the wealthy that dominated the territory. The government, the landowners and the businessmen were perpetuating a system in which the wealthy would remain wealthy and the poor would remain poor. This hierarchy further increased unequal treatment and suffering of the poor causing them to strike out at those around them in a struggle to survive.
While drugs and violence were witnessed in higher-class areas, they became classified as lower class characteristics. And although violence was present before the introduction of drugs into the favelas, extreme levels of “favela violence stems from the 1980’s when the cocaine boom that hit the Americas inner cities also steamrolled into Brazil’s ghettos” (Kaplan, Para 8). Due to extreme levels of established poverty, this began a cyclical pattern of drug trafficking, violence, police brutality and corruption in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
THEORY
Within pre-established structure of unequal treatment, severe levels of poverty, lack of appropriate education and high unemployment rates, it is obvious as to why levels of drug trafficking are so high. Legal employment, even if available, often had people working extremely long hours with little pay, whereas drug trafficking, even if more of a lifestyle than a job provides high pay. On estimate, in Rio “drugs employ [roughly] 100,000 people every year” (Lund, Morelra Salles). As drugs became more common in the favelas, petty crimes and violence rose and the destruction towards one another became ruthless. Organized crime began to develop.
The drug dealers began to “realize that less crime and disorder in both [wealthy & poor] neighborhoods means less police presence and less disruption of the sale of drugs” (Dudley, Para 15). It was then that the drug dealers stepped forward and began protecting their areas where social justice was failing. Organized drug dealing groups, such as the Comando Vermelho or Red Commando (Lund, Morelra Salles), developed from petty thieves combined with veteran guerrilla participants, began serving severe punishments to those caught stealing, or performing any crime to those within their own community. Furthermore, they would provide necessities and funds to their communities, which the government was depriving them of, in exchange for confidentiality from the people when the police would attempt to come into the favelas.
In a community with prevalent oppression, starvation, and degradation, the lifestyle of a drug dealer becomes extremely glamorized, especially in the eyes of youth who witness respect, power and control. Young males begin at an early age to observe the potential of becoming a drug dealer and the ability to have the things he and his family have never had; food, construction materials, medicine, clothes, and other essentials the wealthy take for granted. Apart from the dealer protecting their communities against petty crimes and putting money back into the favelas, it is not uncommon to have serious confrontations between other drug dealers. Young men regularly arm themselves in a struggle for wealth, power and territory, causing constant shoot outs between gangs and rival dealers.
A vicious cycle ensues when drugs are popular amongst all classes; the demand is put on those willing to take the risk to provide them. With the money made from their distribution, especially from the wealthy, the dealers then utilize most of the money purchasing more drugs and guns to enforce rules, as well as protect themselves and their investments. Not only does this cycle perpetuate the addiction of drugs but violence increases as well. Consequently, being in extreme poverty, the ambition to succeed is enormous. Drug trafficking provides excellent benefits in the eyes of youth and therefore the struggle to be the one in control further pushes those interested. “Many choose to arm themselves. The result is a spread of fear; a heavily armed populace and cities like Rio de Janeiro are plagued with gun-crime” (Watson, Para 4). However, aside from the fear, youth begin to assume that the simplest confrontations or concerns can be resolved by simply exterminating the problem. With little to no education, unemployment and starvation, people vent their frustrations towards each other in violent manners.
It is perplexing that communities with little money or authority have access to some of the most powerful weaponry in the world, often at times having more advanced armament than the police. The answer is that “along with cocaine trafficking there is growing trade in weaponry which are often smuggled. But, they are also being stolen from the army and sold by the police themselves” (Lima, Para 13). This shows that not only is there a demand for guns directly involving the drug trade, but those with authority are aiding in the vicious cycle.
Crime and violence is minimal outside of the favelas. However, because they live with the favelas, the upper class has a fear of violence penetrating their wealthy communities, and so they increase their demands for protection from private security companies as well as from the police. The police sell guns to dealers for money and this gives a reason for the police to enter the favelas and partake in extreme outbursts of violence towards the poor in retaliation to the violence that goes on there. “The Brazilian press has referred to the rash of killings as ‘extermination’ with total disregard for the value of life. Military police and armed citizens execute children daily. The killers provide no excuse and nobody asks for one” (Stewart, Para 9).
Highly organized urban combat units were created in Rio by the government to deal with the growing violence that persists in the poor favelas. These police officers are trained specifically in having confrontations within 10-15 meters, within narrow alleys and up slopes of the favelas (Lund, Morelra Salles). There is little regard about age, gender or even disabilities. The police are aggressive with everyone in the favela causing residents to consider them more of an enemy (Lund, Morelra Salles). More importantly, they are given full immunity from retribution in dealing with these communities as they see fit. “In 1995 Rio’s police killed 358 civilians, almost as many civilians killed by all U.S. police forces combined” (Dudley, Para 6).
Police corruption, bribery, extortion and even stealing from the people in the favelas are common. “Bribery also distracts from the legitimacy of the system …almost all levels of government can be persuaded with cash …police case reports of killings are closed without any investigation at all” (Stewart, Para 19). The community then has a more trusting and dependable relationship with drug dealers who at least have the community in mind. It is supposed to be the police that protect the rights and laws of the people, but in Rio it is common for the police to disregard the rights of those in the poor areas and strictly focus their attention on protecting those in wealthier communities. Although the state has laws in which everyone is supposed to abide by, this is hypocritical as the police regularly break the laws themselves and infringe upon the civil and human rights of the poor, who the police blame and target the most (Lima, Para 11). Therefore, to protect the wealthy the police take it out on the poor communities even more, thus perpetuating the violence and corruption even further. Police kill the drug dealers and civilians within the favela community, which causes the dealers to seek out revenge and in turn, kill the police at any chance they can get. It is an ongoing struggle and most fear they will never see the end.
It is difficult to understand how “the nation that boasts the world’s eighth largest economy” (Kaplan, Para 4) can have such a division between the wealthy and the poor and such cases of extreme violence and political corruption. It is somewhat easier to understand why it was like that in Colonial times, but in today’s modern society where human and civil rights are on the thoughts of many it seems unfathomable as to how they can be overlooked, especially in a country that holds a population of 188 million (CIA World Factbook 2006).
It also becomes clearer as individuals attempt to penetrate the vicious cycles of violence and oppression that the task cannot be set to an individual alone. In addition, it cannot be anyone from the outside looking in. As an internal conflict, it is an obligation of those in Brazil, both people and the state, to work together as a group. As long as there is such a rift between wealth causing oppression, severe poverty, unemployment, lack of education, and starvation, there will always be a constant attempt to survive by any means possible. Also, as long as each side continues to only fend for themselves and perpetuate the division, then the vicious cycles that plague the country will continue. Ideals that bring about one side against the other only breed hate and vengeance, which the governor of the state proves when attempting to unify the state and the mayor of Rio against crime by announcing that “we are going to treat these animals like animals” (Dudley, Para 6). However, when attitude often reflects leadership it is no wonder why those underprivileged and uneducated behave at time like wild animals, they are treated and killed like they are.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
In the article Deadly Force: Security and Insecurity in Rio, Steven Dudley begins the article by describing Brazil “surrounded by lush green mountains on one side and the light blue ocean on the other” (Para 2). He contrasts this beautiful image by quickly continuing the article putting into perspective the reality of Rio de Janeiro. Dudley explains the turmoil that has plagued the city for years. This disorder, Dudley explains, is a result of two very different economic groups of people attempting to occupy the same region within Rio. Because of the proximity of these two groups, violence, murder and instability engulf the city.
As a result of mass poverty, citizens surround wealthy neighborhoods engulfing the hillsides with shantytowns and make shift neighborhoods. According to Dudley, in the 80s and 90s, crime rates were rising at such astounding rates causing epidemics of fear and panic within the city resulting in severe increases in security measures. The police were militarized and encouraged to take these shantytowns and favelas by storm and do what was necessary to attempt to control the crime.
As a direct outcome, drug and crime lords took matters into their own hands within their neighborhoods and began to operate under their own rule of law. They began punishing, banning, and killing any thief or criminal in a realization that the less crimes, the less police were to get involved and bother their larger operations. Since the police really only protected the wealthy and abused the rights of the poor, neighborhoods began trusting the drug dealers and groups, such as the Comando Vermelho (CV), that developed to handle crimes and situations not always recognized by the government, such as domestic abuse against women.
Therefore, the government united the police and the military to deal with the small urban guerilla movements that had emerged. Consequently, police brutality increased as a means of counter insurgency and as a result increased the amount of civilian deaths within the city, creating even more chaos and havoc. Dudley concludes that because the military police ignore the rights of the poor and more importantly their right to due process, non-elites scramble to survive outside this hierarchal system by employing their own security systems to protect themselves from each other and the police.
In the article The Law of the Jungle by David E. Kaplan, he begins much like Dudley. He first describes the beautiful landscape of Rio only to be plagued by the hundreds of slums surrounding the city. He describes the slums having no police, no fire department, and few social services. What he does add however, is the description of the many drug traffickers and youth controlling the areas with their own laws and the use of Uzis, AK-47s and hand grenades. Kaplan backs this up by describing how “young men in the city are five times as likely to die from small-arms fire as those in New York or Washington D.C” (Para 4).
Something different that Kaplan explains as opposed to Dudley is the conflict that arises not only between the rich and the poor but also between the different neighborhoods themselves. In a struggle for domination the youth battle for control “and the battles among the rival gangs are murderous” (Para, 5). Kaplan feels that this incessant violence and turmoil is the direct result of the ‘cocaine boom’ that erupted in the country in the early 80s. Since then police and politics have been able to do very little to stop the violence, especially when those they do catch are sent to prison but in prison the small time crooks meet with older more experienced crime lords and veteran members of urban guerrilla movements. These encounters only increase problems by teaching young men “how to face official power, how to form cells and communicate clandestinely”(Para 9).
In the article Brazil: The Deadly Trap, Cesar Garcia Lima presents the argument that “these Slums are at the heart of a drug activity that is undermining the foundations of law and order, the economy, politics and cultural life” (Para 2). Lima presents this point by introducing research from Alba Zaluar, a renowned anthropologist who runs the Research Into Violence Group at the state university of Rio de Janeiro and has been studying this complex underworld and the people who rule it. According to Zaluar, the situation in the favelas is very similar to a mafia-style life only without one big boss controlling everything. Instead, it is several youth trying to find other ways to top up their meager wage by earning extra money selling drugs. As a result these youth carry weapons to protect themselves and in turn vicious violence ensues as these youth attempt to prove themselves amongst their peers. As Zaluar points out “This is how gangs form. You’ve got to use violence to stay in control of a drug gang” (Para 8).
One thing that Zaluar points out however is that drugs affect all social classes, and the assumption that poor people are all drug dealers is a myth kept alive by police repression. “The state officially lays down the law by calling drug dealing illegal. But it is not consistent and takes a hypocritical stand when the police – its representatives –break the law too and violate the civil and human rights of the poor, who are their main target” (Para 12). Therefore, this situation, according to both authors is cyclical and will see no end as both groups continue to abuse rights, laws and as long as lower income slum residents seek illegal means to improve their income. It is possible, says Zaluar, but “you have to have to have various projects going on at the same time – education, health, social mediation in neighborhoods and training for the police” (Para 16). On the other hand, all this seems very unlikely unless both parties are interested in ending the violence and really want to get out of the situation.
In the article Gunfire on Rio’s Mean Streets author Nicholas Watson takes a different approach to the violence and abuses occurring in Rio de Janeiro. Instead of blaming anyone specifically, he instead places the blame on firearms as the ‘disease’ that plagues the city. He does not deny the conflicts that occur between the police and the rival gangs but places the cause of so many deaths, war like zones and crime as a result of the mass influx of guns that plague the country. According to Watson “Brazil is estimated to spend 10 per cent of its national income on security” (Para 2), something that has increased at alarming rates in response to the mass amounts of violence within the city. “That is 5 times more than its education budget and a staggering 56 times more than the funds for the acclaimed ‘Zero Hunger’ campaign launched by the progressive President Lula. Violence is clearly blocking development” (Para 2).
Watson explains that the situation however, is not a lost cause. In order to combat this ‘disease’ Watson explains that grassroots mediation centers have been set up so that local disagreements between neighbors or domestic situations can be solved harmoniously and not with the law of the gun. Even further, educational opportunities as well as sporting activities and micro-credit schemes are being developed in order to aid Rio’s poor and vulnerable, reducing the chance that they fall into the vicious cycles of crime. To curb access to guns, Watson explains that Rio’s State Government has already passed tough new laws regulating gun ownership. To help foster a culture of peace “Viva Rio”, the grassroots organization, organizes acts of arms destruction where by thousands of guns are brought to a public area to be steamrolled or burned in giant pyres. Although violence still ensues on the streets of the slums and throughout the city, Watson makes certain to the reader that by these small steps at the grassroots level it may yet “catalyze the government into doing something about the scourge of violence in Brazil” (Para 9).
WORKS CITED
Blouet, Brian W., Olwyn W. Blouet. Eds. Latin America and the Caribbean: A Systematic and Regional Survey. 4th ed. John Wily & Sons, 2005. p. 51-96.
Dudley, Steven. “Deadly Force: Security and Insecurity in Rio”. NACLA Report on the Americas 32.3 (Nov/Dec 1998).
Kaplan, David E. “The Law of the Jungle”. News & World Report. 133.14 (14 October 2002).
Lima, Cesar Garcia. “Brazil: The Deadly Trap”. UNESCO Sources. 130 (Jan 2001): p13.
Lund, Kátla, and Joao Morelra Salles. dirs. “News From a Personal War”. City of God. Documentary: Ministério de Culura & Lel do Audiovisual, 1997/98.
Stewart, Jay. “Portrait of Brazil: A Society Out of Control”. Harvard International Review. 14.1 (Fall 1991).
Watson, Nicholas. “Gunfire on Rio’s Mean Streets: Plagued by Gun-Crime, Brazilians Seek to Rid Their Streets of Firearms”. New Internationalist. 351 (October 2003): p7.
OTHER WORKS
Amar, Paul E. “Crime, Disorder and Policing”. NACLA Report on the Americas. 37.2 (September/October 2003): p37-42.
Zaluar, Alba. Violence in Rio de Janeiro: Styles of Leisure, Drug Use, and Trafficking. UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.
---. Violence, Easy Money, and Justice in Brazil: 1980 – 1995. UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.
tag: last301
Before the European exploration, Latin America was rich with civilizations. Each of these cultures thrived in the territory they habited utilizing the land and the environment. These cultures worked as communities on communal land providing resources for everybody. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, on expedition for Spain, discovered the Americas by accident when looking for a quicker trade route to India. Subsequent to voyages back and forth between the two countries, the Spanish began to realize the extreme wealth that the newly discovered land had to offer. The Spanish initially colonized in the Caribbean region giving them access to ports, and then swiftly moved inland to Central America where the Aztecs were annihilated. Within fifteen years after the defeat of the central region, the Spanish quickly swooped down into the southern expanse and began taking over the once dominating Inca culture. In less than fifteen years after the initial date of discovery the Spanish had moved into the Americas with force and had decimated even the strongest of the indigenous cultures (Blouet & Blouet).
With the discovery of these new lands, and the realization of wealth that could be prospered from them, other Europeans began coming to the Americas with hopes of becoming equally successful. The success of Spain’s cultural domination influenced other countries to pursue South America. For example, the Portuguese refocused their attention from successful colonization in Africa to their land claim in Brazil. The land was then redistributed to Europeans under new laws leaving the remaining indigenous homeless (Blouet & Blouet). The rise of colonization, plantations, mines, and agriculture brought about the significant need for labour. The Europeans not only used the remaining homeless indigenous people as slaves but had also brought over slave labour from conquests in Africa. Slave labour encouraged the wealthy Europeans to grow significantly richer while oppressing the underprivileged. This mistreatment of the peoples continued until the mid nineteenth century when slavery was abolished due to slave rebellion and liberal thinking. However, the wealthy landowners remained wealthy and the poor, now no longer slaves, remained landless and unemployed.
By the twentieth century, extreme lack of land, food, services, and unemployment caused mass movements of people towards the urban centers in hopes for survival. Illegal shantytowns, or favelas, filled with rudely constructed huts developed around the major cities. Unfortunately, these masses could not penetrate the control of the wealthy that dominated the territory. The government, the landowners and the businessmen were perpetuating a system in which the wealthy would remain wealthy and the poor would remain poor. This hierarchy further increased unequal treatment and suffering of the poor causing them to strike out at those around them in a struggle to survive.
While drugs and violence were witnessed in higher-class areas, they became classified as lower class characteristics. And although violence was present before the introduction of drugs into the favelas, extreme levels of “favela violence stems from the 1980’s when the cocaine boom that hit the Americas inner cities also steamrolled into Brazil’s ghettos” (Kaplan, Para 8). Due to extreme levels of established poverty, this began a cyclical pattern of drug trafficking, violence, police brutality and corruption in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
THEORY
Within pre-established structure of unequal treatment, severe levels of poverty, lack of appropriate education and high unemployment rates, it is obvious as to why levels of drug trafficking are so high. Legal employment, even if available, often had people working extremely long hours with little pay, whereas drug trafficking, even if more of a lifestyle than a job provides high pay. On estimate, in Rio “drugs employ [roughly] 100,000 people every year” (Lund, Morelra Salles). As drugs became more common in the favelas, petty crimes and violence rose and the destruction towards one another became ruthless. Organized crime began to develop.
The drug dealers began to “realize that less crime and disorder in both [wealthy & poor] neighborhoods means less police presence and less disruption of the sale of drugs” (Dudley, Para 15). It was then that the drug dealers stepped forward and began protecting their areas where social justice was failing. Organized drug dealing groups, such as the Comando Vermelho or Red Commando (Lund, Morelra Salles), developed from petty thieves combined with veteran guerrilla participants, began serving severe punishments to those caught stealing, or performing any crime to those within their own community. Furthermore, they would provide necessities and funds to their communities, which the government was depriving them of, in exchange for confidentiality from the people when the police would attempt to come into the favelas.
In a community with prevalent oppression, starvation, and degradation, the lifestyle of a drug dealer becomes extremely glamorized, especially in the eyes of youth who witness respect, power and control. Young males begin at an early age to observe the potential of becoming a drug dealer and the ability to have the things he and his family have never had; food, construction materials, medicine, clothes, and other essentials the wealthy take for granted. Apart from the dealer protecting their communities against petty crimes and putting money back into the favelas, it is not uncommon to have serious confrontations between other drug dealers. Young men regularly arm themselves in a struggle for wealth, power and territory, causing constant shoot outs between gangs and rival dealers.
A vicious cycle ensues when drugs are popular amongst all classes; the demand is put on those willing to take the risk to provide them. With the money made from their distribution, especially from the wealthy, the dealers then utilize most of the money purchasing more drugs and guns to enforce rules, as well as protect themselves and their investments. Not only does this cycle perpetuate the addiction of drugs but violence increases as well. Consequently, being in extreme poverty, the ambition to succeed is enormous. Drug trafficking provides excellent benefits in the eyes of youth and therefore the struggle to be the one in control further pushes those interested. “Many choose to arm themselves. The result is a spread of fear; a heavily armed populace and cities like Rio de Janeiro are plagued with gun-crime” (Watson, Para 4). However, aside from the fear, youth begin to assume that the simplest confrontations or concerns can be resolved by simply exterminating the problem. With little to no education, unemployment and starvation, people vent their frustrations towards each other in violent manners.
It is perplexing that communities with little money or authority have access to some of the most powerful weaponry in the world, often at times having more advanced armament than the police. The answer is that “along with cocaine trafficking there is growing trade in weaponry which are often smuggled. But, they are also being stolen from the army and sold by the police themselves” (Lima, Para 13). This shows that not only is there a demand for guns directly involving the drug trade, but those with authority are aiding in the vicious cycle.
Crime and violence is minimal outside of the favelas. However, because they live with the favelas, the upper class has a fear of violence penetrating their wealthy communities, and so they increase their demands for protection from private security companies as well as from the police. The police sell guns to dealers for money and this gives a reason for the police to enter the favelas and partake in extreme outbursts of violence towards the poor in retaliation to the violence that goes on there. “The Brazilian press has referred to the rash of killings as ‘extermination’ with total disregard for the value of life. Military police and armed citizens execute children daily. The killers provide no excuse and nobody asks for one” (Stewart, Para 9).
Highly organized urban combat units were created in Rio by the government to deal with the growing violence that persists in the poor favelas. These police officers are trained specifically in having confrontations within 10-15 meters, within narrow alleys and up slopes of the favelas (Lund, Morelra Salles). There is little regard about age, gender or even disabilities. The police are aggressive with everyone in the favela causing residents to consider them more of an enemy (Lund, Morelra Salles). More importantly, they are given full immunity from retribution in dealing with these communities as they see fit. “In 1995 Rio’s police killed 358 civilians, almost as many civilians killed by all U.S. police forces combined” (Dudley, Para 6).
Police corruption, bribery, extortion and even stealing from the people in the favelas are common. “Bribery also distracts from the legitimacy of the system …almost all levels of government can be persuaded with cash …police case reports of killings are closed without any investigation at all” (Stewart, Para 19). The community then has a more trusting and dependable relationship with drug dealers who at least have the community in mind. It is supposed to be the police that protect the rights and laws of the people, but in Rio it is common for the police to disregard the rights of those in the poor areas and strictly focus their attention on protecting those in wealthier communities. Although the state has laws in which everyone is supposed to abide by, this is hypocritical as the police regularly break the laws themselves and infringe upon the civil and human rights of the poor, who the police blame and target the most (Lima, Para 11). Therefore, to protect the wealthy the police take it out on the poor communities even more, thus perpetuating the violence and corruption even further. Police kill the drug dealers and civilians within the favela community, which causes the dealers to seek out revenge and in turn, kill the police at any chance they can get. It is an ongoing struggle and most fear they will never see the end.
It is difficult to understand how “the nation that boasts the world’s eighth largest economy” (Kaplan, Para 4) can have such a division between the wealthy and the poor and such cases of extreme violence and political corruption. It is somewhat easier to understand why it was like that in Colonial times, but in today’s modern society where human and civil rights are on the thoughts of many it seems unfathomable as to how they can be overlooked, especially in a country that holds a population of 188 million (CIA World Factbook 2006).
It also becomes clearer as individuals attempt to penetrate the vicious cycles of violence and oppression that the task cannot be set to an individual alone. In addition, it cannot be anyone from the outside looking in. As an internal conflict, it is an obligation of those in Brazil, both people and the state, to work together as a group. As long as there is such a rift between wealth causing oppression, severe poverty, unemployment, lack of education, and starvation, there will always be a constant attempt to survive by any means possible. Also, as long as each side continues to only fend for themselves and perpetuate the division, then the vicious cycles that plague the country will continue. Ideals that bring about one side against the other only breed hate and vengeance, which the governor of the state proves when attempting to unify the state and the mayor of Rio against crime by announcing that “we are going to treat these animals like animals” (Dudley, Para 6). However, when attitude often reflects leadership it is no wonder why those underprivileged and uneducated behave at time like wild animals, they are treated and killed like they are.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
In the article Deadly Force: Security and Insecurity in Rio, Steven Dudley begins the article by describing Brazil “surrounded by lush green mountains on one side and the light blue ocean on the other” (Para 2). He contrasts this beautiful image by quickly continuing the article putting into perspective the reality of Rio de Janeiro. Dudley explains the turmoil that has plagued the city for years. This disorder, Dudley explains, is a result of two very different economic groups of people attempting to occupy the same region within Rio. Because of the proximity of these two groups, violence, murder and instability engulf the city.
As a result of mass poverty, citizens surround wealthy neighborhoods engulfing the hillsides with shantytowns and make shift neighborhoods. According to Dudley, in the 80s and 90s, crime rates were rising at such astounding rates causing epidemics of fear and panic within the city resulting in severe increases in security measures. The police were militarized and encouraged to take these shantytowns and favelas by storm and do what was necessary to attempt to control the crime.
As a direct outcome, drug and crime lords took matters into their own hands within their neighborhoods and began to operate under their own rule of law. They began punishing, banning, and killing any thief or criminal in a realization that the less crimes, the less police were to get involved and bother their larger operations. Since the police really only protected the wealthy and abused the rights of the poor, neighborhoods began trusting the drug dealers and groups, such as the Comando Vermelho (CV), that developed to handle crimes and situations not always recognized by the government, such as domestic abuse against women.
Therefore, the government united the police and the military to deal with the small urban guerilla movements that had emerged. Consequently, police brutality increased as a means of counter insurgency and as a result increased the amount of civilian deaths within the city, creating even more chaos and havoc. Dudley concludes that because the military police ignore the rights of the poor and more importantly their right to due process, non-elites scramble to survive outside this hierarchal system by employing their own security systems to protect themselves from each other and the police.
In the article The Law of the Jungle by David E. Kaplan, he begins much like Dudley. He first describes the beautiful landscape of Rio only to be plagued by the hundreds of slums surrounding the city. He describes the slums having no police, no fire department, and few social services. What he does add however, is the description of the many drug traffickers and youth controlling the areas with their own laws and the use of Uzis, AK-47s and hand grenades. Kaplan backs this up by describing how “young men in the city are five times as likely to die from small-arms fire as those in New York or Washington D.C” (Para 4).
Something different that Kaplan explains as opposed to Dudley is the conflict that arises not only between the rich and the poor but also between the different neighborhoods themselves. In a struggle for domination the youth battle for control “and the battles among the rival gangs are murderous” (Para, 5). Kaplan feels that this incessant violence and turmoil is the direct result of the ‘cocaine boom’ that erupted in the country in the early 80s. Since then police and politics have been able to do very little to stop the violence, especially when those they do catch are sent to prison but in prison the small time crooks meet with older more experienced crime lords and veteran members of urban guerrilla movements. These encounters only increase problems by teaching young men “how to face official power, how to form cells and communicate clandestinely”(Para 9).
In the article Brazil: The Deadly Trap, Cesar Garcia Lima presents the argument that “these Slums are at the heart of a drug activity that is undermining the foundations of law and order, the economy, politics and cultural life” (Para 2). Lima presents this point by introducing research from Alba Zaluar, a renowned anthropologist who runs the Research Into Violence Group at the state university of Rio de Janeiro and has been studying this complex underworld and the people who rule it. According to Zaluar, the situation in the favelas is very similar to a mafia-style life only without one big boss controlling everything. Instead, it is several youth trying to find other ways to top up their meager wage by earning extra money selling drugs. As a result these youth carry weapons to protect themselves and in turn vicious violence ensues as these youth attempt to prove themselves amongst their peers. As Zaluar points out “This is how gangs form. You’ve got to use violence to stay in control of a drug gang” (Para 8).
One thing that Zaluar points out however is that drugs affect all social classes, and the assumption that poor people are all drug dealers is a myth kept alive by police repression. “The state officially lays down the law by calling drug dealing illegal. But it is not consistent and takes a hypocritical stand when the police – its representatives –break the law too and violate the civil and human rights of the poor, who are their main target” (Para 12). Therefore, this situation, according to both authors is cyclical and will see no end as both groups continue to abuse rights, laws and as long as lower income slum residents seek illegal means to improve their income. It is possible, says Zaluar, but “you have to have to have various projects going on at the same time – education, health, social mediation in neighborhoods and training for the police” (Para 16). On the other hand, all this seems very unlikely unless both parties are interested in ending the violence and really want to get out of the situation.
In the article Gunfire on Rio’s Mean Streets author Nicholas Watson takes a different approach to the violence and abuses occurring in Rio de Janeiro. Instead of blaming anyone specifically, he instead places the blame on firearms as the ‘disease’ that plagues the city. He does not deny the conflicts that occur between the police and the rival gangs but places the cause of so many deaths, war like zones and crime as a result of the mass influx of guns that plague the country. According to Watson “Brazil is estimated to spend 10 per cent of its national income on security” (Para 2), something that has increased at alarming rates in response to the mass amounts of violence within the city. “That is 5 times more than its education budget and a staggering 56 times more than the funds for the acclaimed ‘Zero Hunger’ campaign launched by the progressive President Lula. Violence is clearly blocking development” (Para 2).
Watson explains that the situation however, is not a lost cause. In order to combat this ‘disease’ Watson explains that grassroots mediation centers have been set up so that local disagreements between neighbors or domestic situations can be solved harmoniously and not with the law of the gun. Even further, educational opportunities as well as sporting activities and micro-credit schemes are being developed in order to aid Rio’s poor and vulnerable, reducing the chance that they fall into the vicious cycles of crime. To curb access to guns, Watson explains that Rio’s State Government has already passed tough new laws regulating gun ownership. To help foster a culture of peace “Viva Rio”, the grassroots organization, organizes acts of arms destruction where by thousands of guns are brought to a public area to be steamrolled or burned in giant pyres. Although violence still ensues on the streets of the slums and throughout the city, Watson makes certain to the reader that by these small steps at the grassroots level it may yet “catalyze the government into doing something about the scourge of violence in Brazil” (Para 9).
WORKS CITED
Blouet, Brian W., Olwyn W. Blouet. Eds. Latin America and the Caribbean: A Systematic and Regional Survey. 4th ed. John Wily & Sons, 2005. p. 51-96.
Dudley, Steven. “Deadly Force: Security and Insecurity in Rio”. NACLA Report on the Americas 32.3 (Nov/Dec 1998).
Kaplan, David E. “The Law of the Jungle”. News & World Report. 133.14 (14 October 2002).
Lima, Cesar Garcia. “Brazil: The Deadly Trap”. UNESCO Sources. 130 (Jan 2001): p13.
Lund, Kátla, and Joao Morelra Salles. dirs. “News From a Personal War”. City of God. Documentary: Ministério de Culura & Lel do Audiovisual, 1997/98.
Stewart, Jay. “Portrait of Brazil: A Society Out of Control”. Harvard International Review. 14.1 (Fall 1991).
Watson, Nicholas. “Gunfire on Rio’s Mean Streets: Plagued by Gun-Crime, Brazilians Seek to Rid Their Streets of Firearms”. New Internationalist. 351 (October 2003): p7.
OTHER WORKS
Amar, Paul E. “Crime, Disorder and Policing”. NACLA Report on the Americas. 37.2 (September/October 2003): p37-42.
Zaluar, Alba. Violence in Rio de Janeiro: Styles of Leisure, Drug Use, and Trafficking. UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.
---. Violence, Easy Money, and Justice in Brazil: 1980 – 1995. UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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