{"id":18337,"date":"2014-10-02T16:08:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T19:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=18337"},"modified":"2014-10-07T17:41:12","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T20:41:12","slug":"the-power-of-militias-in-rio-de-janeiros-sunday-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=18337","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Militias in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the original by Mars\u00edlea Gombata\u00a0in Portuguese, published in Carta Capital, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Rio citizens vote Sunday, militias act discreetly and go back to supporting candidates rather than\u00a0running for office themselves.<\/h3>\n

Aside from the R$48 (US$20) that she has to pay each month for the gas supply to her home, I.S., 50, also pays R$5\u00a0to receive\u00a0the mail that is addressed to her or her husband. For the past ten years, the same group of militias<\/a> has controlled the gas supply, mail, cable TV reception, local van transport, and even which candidate she should vote for. These militias are led by\u00a0former civil security or police officers who now control various parts<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro. The exploitation that I.S. is subject to every day is not exclusive to\u00a0where she lives in Pedra de Guaratiba, in the West Zone<\/a>. Militias are present in over\u00a0170 other areas within Rio de Janeiro state, some where Police Pacifying Units (UPPs)<\/a> have been installed.<\/p>\n

Besides territorial control, the militias perform public functions related to\u00a0criminal interests. State representative\u00a0Marcelo Freixo<\/a>, presided over the Congressional\u00a0Investigation\u00a0(CPI) into the militias in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj), and says this shows that militias have an interest in power as well as economics. \u201cThis is a criminal organization that mixes their territorial power with their electoral power, something that the drug traffickers<\/a> never managed to do in Rio de Janeiro,\u201d he points out.<\/p>\n

Unlike\u00a0the drug trafficking gangs that\u00a0used to control territories now controlled by the UPPs, the militias have already managed to elect city council members and state deputies of their choice, interfere in the mayor’s race and are decisive in elections for governor. \u201cYou just have to go into militia areas to see legions of voters who are organized by them. Drug traffickers never managed to organize this or have anyone elected,\u201d Freixo adds. To illustrate\u00a0his point, Freixo mentions the 2010 Brazilian Republican Party (PRB) candidature of \u201cCidinho,\u201d the brother of Marcelo VP, former leader of the Red Command<\/a> drug gang, currently imprisoned in Catanduvas. Cidinho, hoping to become a state representative, was not elected: he got only 8,000 votes in (his focal area of)\u00a0Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, a complex of favelas that\u00a0has 65,000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n

The militias opted to take another route. In 2008, they successfully elected\u00a0the brothers Jerominho (Jo\u00e3o Guimar\u00e3es Filho) and Natalino Jos\u00e9 Guimar\u00e3es to the positions of city council member and state deputy, respectively. Today, the militias have changed their strategy\u00a0and no longer risk putting anyone directly into electoral races<\/a>. Instead, they support candidates. \u201cThe very\u00a0bosses of the \u2018Justice League\u2019 were candidates, which cost them dearly due to the\u00a0high exposure. They got tired of helping others reap the rewards, and decided they wanted to be elected themselves, but they ended up in prison,\u201d Freixo says. \u201cIn this election, we can see they are returning to (the strategy of) supporting candidates so that their\u00a0enterprises will (not be threatened but) be maintained. That way, they are less exposed,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Ignacio Cano<\/a>, from the Violence Analysis Laboratory<\/a> at Rio de Janeiro’s State University, also sees a\u00a0change in strategy. Author of Hidden: The Evolution of the Rio de Janeiro Militias (2008-2011)<\/em><\/a>, Cano explains that, given the sentencing of candidates identified as militias, the idea is to not attract too much attention and to stay in a position on the sidelines. \u201cThat does not mean, however, that in a variety of communities they are not the ones who decide whether or not a candidate can run. That sort of control still exists,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

The heyday\u00a0of militia activity was in 2006-7, a time when some politicians\u2013such as then-mayor Cesar Maia\u2013supported these organizations as \u201ccommunity self-defense.\u201d In 2008, the kidnap and torture of O Dia<\/em>\u00a0journalists who were investigating militia activity\u00a0in Batan<\/a>, a community in Realengo in Rio\u2019s West Zone, made visible that there were criminal actors among the state.<\/p>\n

As such, despite being exercised more discreetly, their influence has not waned. On September 12, the Regional Electoral Tribunal of Rio found boxes containing lists of PMDB and PSDB candidates\u2019 supporters and promotional material in the community neighborhood association office in \u00c1guia de Ouro e Guarda, in Del Castilho in the North Zone<\/a>.\u00a0 The operation investigated allegations of the illegal influencing of elections by militias. Two months ago, a re-election candidate for state representative\u00a0filed a complaint when she was\u00a0threatened by an armed man when putting up campaign posters in \u00c1guia de Ouro. Moreover, she confirmed militias levied a charge of R$100,000 on those interested in campaigning in their areas.<\/p>\n

Anyone who tries to advertise in militia-controlled areas without knowing the rules ends up being threatened. \u201cTry going into a militia area and putting up a poster. They won\u2019t have to shoot\u2013you just simply won\u2019t put your poster up. What gets put up is exclusively the information about the candidate who is economically involved with them,\u201d Freixo confirms. A candidate for re-election himself, Freixo avoids certain areas and has private bodyguards\u00a0for his own safety.<\/p>\n

He explains that, unlike traffickers, militias are not confronted by the state since they are the state. \u201cTheir logic is not one of war but rather of controlling economic power and community infrastructure, such as local transport, gas supply, and other things,\u201d he says. \u201cConfronting the militias should be done by the police and by economically stifling them, something that has not yet been done,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the original by Mars\u00edlea Gombata\u00a0in Portuguese, published in Carta Capital, click\u00a0here. As Rio citizens vote Sunday, militias act discreetly and go back to supporting candidates rather than\u00a0running for office themselves. Aside from the R$48 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":18338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1277,335,1330,328,336],"tags":[1438,776,140,1440,595,25,630,33,618,37,16,374,30,21],"writer":[767],"translator":[467],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uppwatch","8":"category-policies","9":"category-translation","10":"category-understanding-rio","11":"category-violations","12":"tag-aguia-de-ouro","13":"tag-cesar-maia","14":"tag-corruption","15":"tag-del-castilho","16":"tag-elections","17":"tag-human-rights","18":"tag-marcelo-freixo","19":"tag-militia","20":"tag-neighborhood-association","21":"tag-north-zone","22":"tag-police-corruption","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-urban-violence","25":"tag-west-zone","26":"writer-marsilea-gombata","27":"translator-tom-winterbottom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18337"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=18337"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=18337"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=18337"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=18337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}