Brazil: violence in (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

Just how Rio copes with the threat of violence is a recurrent theme here, let alone how the 2016 Olympics affects this. Today IISS had an event today 'Urban Warfare in the ‘Marvelous City’: Securing Rio from the Gangs', with two speakers and the podcast is one hour long:http://www.iiss.org/en/events/events...rio-gangs-58a9

The event's chair Nigel Inkster referred to David Kilcullen's book, hence the title.

One speaker didn't make it and her book is due out soon. From an IISS email:

Juliana Barbassa is an award-winning journalist and author. Her book, Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio de Janeiro on the Brink, is based on her years in Brazil as a correspondent for the Associated Press and will be published in July 2015. She was born in Brazil, but has lived in Iraq, Malta, Libya, Spain, France and the United States. She is currently based in Switzerland.

There is thread on Brazil and violence into which this maybe merged:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=2602

[davidbfpo]

Two articles appeared today via Twitter on BOPE, the military police unit, one is a commentary following a death. Its starts with:

The investigation of an elite police unit in Brazil for allegedly trying to cover up the disappearance of a Rio de Janeiro man may represent an opportunity to restore the public’s trust in the rule of law, and perhaps repair the reputation of a controversial program to pacify favelas.

Link:http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/a...te-police-unit

The second is an interview of a convicted BOPE member:

A former military police officer in Brazil talks about the culture of violence that permeates the force, and how this can dehumanize those who initially joined in order to serve and protect the public.

Link:http://www.insightcrime.org/news-ana...eates-monsters

[davidbfpo]

A commentary that explains why soldiers are so often on the streets and the refrain "Oh no, not again":

The army has, in effect, become a “parapolice” force – a substitute for the country’s badly stretched police. Contrary to what some doom-mongering commentators say, this doesn’t signal an impending military coup, but it does show just how badly the authorities have failed to maintain public security.

Link:https://theconversation.com/brazil-is-relying-on-soldiers-instead-of-regular-police-heres-why-73034?

[AdamG]

Brazilian police near the border with Paraguay have exchanged gunfire with members of a gang who carried out what Paraguayan officials are calling the robbery of the century.
Three gang members were killed and two injured in the clash, police say.
Earlier on Monday about 50 men moved into the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este, blew up the front of a private security firm, and fired on police.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39700931

[davidbfpo]

A new report on crime statistics in Brazil's state of Rio de Janeiro shows deteriorating violence indicators over a period of several years, raising continued questions about the extent to which the city's public security policies have been effective.

Link:http://www.insightcrime.org.linkis.com/iVCl4

A new phrase to me:

homicides resulting from police intervention

[davidbfpo]

I attended a lecture yesterday in London @ LSE on 'Militarised Response to Transnational Crime', a book now published and one speaker, ex-BBC reporter Misha Glenny, referred to his time living in a Rio favela (Rosina? Rochina) and an interview with a boss (now deposed or dead):

Three factors gave him control: a monopoly of violence in the favela, with just 120 armed men amidst 100k people; corrupting the local police and other state institutions and having community support. Rosina became known as a safe place to visit, for drugs and entertainment, so drug trade profits went up and jobs were created.

Finally Misha raised a point IIRC appears here irregularly on other threads; non-state bodies are beating the nation-state in providing stability.

See Journal article:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...upport-operati

[Azor]

I attended a lecture yesterday in London @ LSE on 'Militarised Response to Transnational Crime', a book now published and one speaker, ex-BBC reporter Misha Glenny, referred to his time living in a Rio favela (Rosina? Rochina) and an interview with a boss (now deposed or dead):Finally Misha raised a point IIRC appears here irregularly on other threads; non-state bodies are beating the nation-state in providing stability.

See Journal article:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...upport-operati

Well, to be fair, this is hardly a phenomenon unique to Brazil, and can also be notably found in Colombia (albeit on a much-decreased basis), Mexico, much of Africa, Syria, Iraq, the West Bank, Gaza, and Lebanon.

The first mission of the state is security. The state itself is derived from the army, the first human bureaucracy. The army originated from a group of militants who would conquer, extort and protect a community, which was typically engaged in farming and animal husbandry.

In this respect, the leader of the gang in the Rio favela or the head of the cartel in Juarez imitates the emergence of the very first kings, and his sicarios, the very first warrior aristocracy. We may refer to these organizations as "non-state bodies", but they form in areas of anarchy, chaos and lawlessness, and are as much a historically-accurate attempt at establishing a state, as the black markets of North Korea are at establishing free markets.