HomeNewsAnalysisRio's Pacification: Why Rocinha Still Isn't 'Ours'
ANALYSIS

Rio's Pacification: Why Rocinha Still Isn't 'Ours'

BRAZIL / 2 APR 2012 BY JULIA MICHAELS* EN

Despite triumphant media reports last year that "Rocinha is ours," following the military occupation of the Rio favela, criminal control of the area has not been broken, as Rio-based blogger Julia Michaels reports.

The day after Rocinha’s police occupation last November, O Globo newspaper announced to the world on its front page that "Rocinha e nossa" -- Rocinha is ours. However, it seems that several other groups are contesting ownership of the South Zone’s largest and most visible favela, with an estimated population of 200,000.

According to press reports, two drug gangs are fighting over the territory, up for grabs since druglord "Nem" was arrested in a car trunk, also last November. That’s the explanation for most of the eight murders that have taken place since occupation. Robberies are also on the rise. Such crime hasn’t been seen in other pacified favelas, though there have been problems with police corruption and community relations.

Rocinha doesn’t yet have a UPP, or police pacification unit. Each of the city’s 19 units have been installed only after a territory is fully in control of the Rio police -- certainly not the case here. Given the crime spike, some residents yearn for the return of an iron-fisted druglord.

Yet the state government is far from allowing a return to the past. This week State Public Safety Secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame announced that 130 new recruits will intern in Rocinha, bringing more manpower to an additional 40-man contingent and swelling the total force there to 350. Most are meant to carry out foot patrols in the favela’s alleyways.

Beltrame also named a military police commander responsible solely for Rocinha.

In late February, Governor Sergio Cabral signed a decree requiring police and firemen to provide annual declarations of their personal assets.

But the Rio police might do well to extend to Rocinha the level of technological intelligence and coordination reportedly now being utilized in Complexo to Alemão, another troublesome territory. Only last week did the military police begin taking over Alemão from the Brazilian Army, which back in November 2010 had invaded the complex of favelas, in response to a series of vehicle torchings that terrorized the city.

There are already some cameras installed in Rocinha. Even better intelligence -- and, possibly, intelligence sharing -- could help nail what this week’s Veja newsmagazine says is the real reason why Rocinha still isn’t “ours”:

A document produced by the Civil Police Intelligence Unit, dated February 15 of this year, is as succinct as it is shocking in its revelations. In the hands of the Rio Secretariat of Public Safety, which is investigating its contents, the dossier raises suspicions that once again, police are collaborating with criminals in exchange for a substantial “tip.” Item four of the 10-topic, two-page report, to which Veja had access, provides the probable sums. The “down payment” is said to be 200,000 reais (almost $120,000 equivalent). And the monthly payments to military police, according to the document, come to 80,000 reais. In exchange for this, the police are said to be staying out of the alleyways, and keeping watch only over the larger byways that cut across the favela.

Tensions between Rio’s civil (intelligence) police and its military (patrolling) police are reportedly running high, as one might imagine, given what Veja published.

As long ago as the 1990s, when anthropologist Luiz Eduardo Soares was in Beltrame’s job, during Governor Anthony Garotinho’s first term, it was clear that having more than one police force is problematic. In addition to the state-wide military and civil police forces, the city of Rio also has traffic police (CET), and a Municipal Guard. The state of Rio also has highway police and then there is Brazil’s FBI, the Federal Police. Oh, don’t forget the forest police (who have helped out with occupation).

In 2009, Beltrame created Integrated Public Safety Regions, or RISPs, by way of the Portuguese acronym. These have been instrumental in bringing down crime, since the state is now divided up into regions in which civil and military police units are jointly responsible for crime reduction goals.

This year the military police force also instituted a new police academy curriculum, with a focus on reduced police corruption and violence.

Some security and police experts say the RISPs aren’t enough to foster true coordination, planning and evaluation -- i.e. effective policing. They suggest more radical institutional change. What happens next in Rocinha may determine how necessary that is.

And Rocinha constitutes only one of several enormous territorial challenges facing security officials. In addition to the ongoing military police handover of Alemão, Complexo da Mare, Jacarezinho and Manguinhos are high on Beltrame’s to-do list.

Reprinted with permission from Julia Michaels*, a reporter who has lived in Rio almost 30 years. See her blog, Rio Real, which is in English and Portuguese, and read the original post here.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BRAZIL / 8 NOV 2022

As gold prices have skyrocketed, a boom in mining across the Amazon Basin has flourished, leaving a deep environmental footprint.

BRAZIL / 26 MAY 2023

The PCC appears to be providing support to illegal miners in the Yanomami territory in Brazil's northern state of Roraima.

BRAZIL / 25 MAR 2022

In many of Rio de Janeiro's favelas, criminal organizations are setting exorbitant prices for gas cylinders, knowing that residents will…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

All Eyes on Ecuador

2 JUN 2023

Our coverage of organized crime in Ecuador continues to be a valuable resource for international and local news outlets. Internationally, Reuters cited our 2022 Homicide Round-Up,…

WORK WITH US

Open Position: Social Media and Engagement Strategist

27 MAY 2023

InSight Crime is looking for a Social Media and Engagement Strategist who will be focused on maintaining and improving InSight Crime’s reputation and interaction with its audiences through publishing activities…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Receives Great Reception

27 MAY 2023

Several of InSight Crime’s most recent articles about Venezuela have been well received by regional media. Our article on Venezuela’s colectivos expanding beyond their political role to control access to…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report Continues

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.