Rio Militias Cast Violent Shadow Over Elections
Reuters
RIO DE JANEIRO—The 35th district police station on the western outskirts of Rio de Janeiro has the feel of an army outpost at war.
Three cars parked outside, one an armored black Audi, have windows smashed by bullets. A group of plain-clothed police talk nervously nearby, machine guns slung across their backs.
The threat is not from Rio's notorious drug traffickers, but from within the police itself.
"It's a more complex problem—we are fighting enemies who are at our side," said Marcus Neves, police chief for the Campo Grande area.
As campaigning gets under way across Brazil for local elections in October, democracy is a distant prospect in areas where drug gangs and, increasingly, militias led by corrupt police are filling a power vacuum left by the state.
In a shocking crime even by Rio's violent standards, a militia calling itself the League of Justice is accused of shooting dead at least seven innocent residents last week in the Barbante slum near Neves' station.
Neves says the killers, including six police officers, a firefighter and an ex-drug trafficker, had been coercing voters to elect their favored candidate.
Early last Wednesday, they disguised themselves as drug gang members and started shooting in an attempt to convince residents they needed the militia's protection from criminals.
Once seen by many as a solution to the city's drug gangs, the militias have become part of Rio's violence problem, adopting similar tactics of intimidation and extortion.
With their growth, and reports of some cooperating with drug gangs, the lines between criminals and police have become increasingly blurred.
The militias began by offering residents protection, but have used their power to run illegal businesses such as supplying gas canisters, transport services and cable TV.
Neves said militia members can earn up to 20 times the average cop's monthly salary of about $300. They have also formed partnerships with politicians who use them to secure votes.
With more than a month of campaigning still to go, Rio's media have reported numerous cases of intimidation by drug gangs and militias that have created no-go areas for candidates.
Rio state Governor Sergio Cabral has called in the army to boost security ahead of the election, citing the threat from gangs and militias, which may control more than 100 areas across the city.
"The problems with traffickers are not new ... but now the militias have come and they are a grave issue for Brazil's democracy," said Rubens Andrade, a candidate for counselor who has been campaigning in some areas where militias operate.
‘Out of Control’
Militias first started appearing in Rio in the 1970s, often taking the form of death squads. The last few years have seen a surge in their presence, something many blame on some senior officials, politicians and the media for initially encouraging them to combat the drug gangs.
"When militias started to grow, they said: 'Good, this is how to defend against drug traffic,'" said Vera Malaguti of the Rio Institute of Criminology. "Now they are out of control."
Patrick Wilcken, a Brazil campaigner with Amnesty International, said the situation in Rio was "far graver than first thought" with militias having links to high levels in the state government.
A militia in the west of Rio was accused of torturing four people, including two local journalists, in May. A police officer was arrested, accused of leading the gang.
Rio's former head of police Alvaro Lins was expelled from the state legislature and was arrested this month on charges of helping to form armed gangs among other crimes.
After years of militia abuses, Brazil's lower house of Congress only last week passed legislation making forming militias a federal crime. It still needs Senate approval.
The killings this week in the Barbante slum appeared to show how politics has become entwined with violence in Rio.
Neves says the League of Justice militia, some of whose roughly 50 members are recognizable by their "Batman" symbol tattoos, is run by local politician brothers and former police detectives Natalino and Jeronimo Guimaraes.
Natalino Guimaraes was arrested after a gun battle in July, accused of attempted murder and forming a militia. His brother was arrested on charges of forming a militia in December.
According to Neves, it was the son of Jeronimo Guimaraes, former police officer Luciano, who led the killing spree last week.
Jeronimo's daughter Carminha, who is running for councilor in the area, denied the killers had anything to do with her family or her campaign, according to media reports.
Residents told Globo newspaper in July that militia members had handed out leaflets warning that Carminha needed to win, "or there'll be trouble."
Neves said that any tolerance towards police joining militias was a thing of the past.
"We're mounting a big operation to catch them and put them in jail," he said of the killers. "Police have to live on the salary the state pays, or find a different job."
