Militia grew in Rio with support from politicians – 11/09/2023 – Power

Pivot of the most recent security crisis in Rio de Janeiro, the militia expanded with support from a large part of Rio de Janeiro’s political class — whether explicit or covert.

Militiamen, who dominate a relevant portion of the state’s metropolitan region, have been praised and defended since their consolidation, in the early 2000s, by politicians of different persuasions. They were seen as a solution to drug trafficking, or, at least, a lesser evil.

In return, the militia guaranteed political leaders electoral support in the dominated areas.

The most famous example is that of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who defended paramilitary groups and maintained complimentary speeches until recently, including in the campaign that led him to the Presidency in 2018.

The issue also affected the Lula (PT) government this year, after the Sheet show that the political group of the then Minister of Tourism, federal deputy Daniela Carneiro (União Brasil-RJ), maintained links with militiamen.

Complimentary comments towards the paramilitaries were common even among the main names in the center of Rio, such as mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD) and councilor Cesar Maia (PSDB), who governed the capital three times.

When he ran for state government for the first time, in 2006, Paes stated that the “Minas Gerais police”, as the militia members were called, brought “calmness”. The militia’s actions, he said, were a way to regain security.

“Jacarepaguá is a neighborhood where the Minas Gerais police force, made up of police officers and firefighters, brought tranquility to the population. Morro São José Operário was one of the most violent in that state and now it is one of the calmest,” Paes told TV Globe at the time.

Today, Paes has already reevaluated his statement and said that the terms used were misleading.

Also in 2006, Cesar Maia, then mayor of Rio, called the militias ADCs, community self-defense groups. He adopted a discourse, also defended by other politicians, that these criminal groups were a lesser evil.

“These militias are perceived by the population and by the public authorities themselves as much better than drug trafficking,” Maia told Globo in December of that year.

The former mayor sheltered in his government suspects cited in the Militia CPI, in Alerj (Rio’s Legislative Assembly), in 2008.

One of them was the merchant Josinaldo Francisco da Cruz, known as Nadinho de Rio das Pedras. At the beginning of the former mayor’s second term, Maia appointed him as the neighborhood’s regional administrator.

Rio das Pedras is the birthplace of the Rio militia, and Nadinho was a community leader involved with parallel power in the region. He was elected councilor in 2008, but was shot dead the following year.

In the statements he gave to the CPI das Milícias, the councilor stated that he was a campaigner for Maia’s son, the then federal deputy Rodrigo Maia — who, years later, would become president of the Chamber.

Another person investigated by the CPI who participated in the former mayor’s government was police officer Epaminondas de Queiroz Medeiros Júnior, known as Captain Queiroz. The PM worked in the Military Coordination of Rio City Hall during the former mayor’s first term and that of his successor, Luiz Paulo Conde.

According to the commission, Queiroz took over the Rio das Pedras militia after Nadinho. He was arrested in 2020, in a Public Prosecutor’s Office operation that targeted gang leaders.

When contacted, Cesar Maia stated that “the future showed that his comments at the time were wrong.” Rodrigo said that he never had any relationship with the militia in his six terms as parliamentarian.

Militia on the left

Even within Rio’s left, which has consolidated itself as a center of reaction to the militia, there was a presence of paramilitaries in the 2000s. At the time, the PT had councilor Jorge Babu among its main members.

A civil police officer, Babu had great influence in the west zone of Rio and was elected councilor in 2000 and 2004. In 2006, he became state deputy.

Two years later, however, he was mentioned in the CPI das Milícias as head of the group that operated in Pedra de Guaratiba, in the west zone. He was denounced by the Public Ministry for forming a gang and convicted in 2010 — which caused the PT to expel him from the party.

The party, however, did not have the same attitude towards Babu’s brother, Elton, also mentioned in the CPI, despite his campaign material being found, during a police operation, in properties linked to the faction.

At the time, investigators stated that the candidate had the support of militiamen. But the party decided not to expel him, and Elton was elected that year and re-elected in the following election, in 2012. He remained in the City Council until 2016, affiliated with the PT.

The reasons for the alliance

According to sociologist Ignácio Cano, territorial control is one of the main factors that link politics and militia. This is because the paramilitaries manage to create an electoral monopoly within the areas they dominate.

In these regions, the only people who can campaign are candidates supported by militia members. And these areas are, in general, in the west zone of Rio, where there is the highest concentration of voters.

“This is a very strong component that emerged in the mid-2000s. Several politicians were elected with a massive vote in militia areas”, says Cano. “Rio made the mistake of opening space for the militias and never managed to reverse this territorial control.”

The thought that the militia was a lesser evil compared to drug trafficking, as defended by politicians, also found an echo in society.

Militiamen said they offered security to prevent the community from being invaded by any faction. Furthermore, they curbed drug use in the neighborhood.

“Politicians, community leaders and the media who believed that the militias were self-defense said that they were popular and legitimate movements and that they should be tolerated,” says social scientist Silvia Ramos.

This thinking only changed after journalists were tortured by militiamen in the Batan favela, in May 2008. The case shocked society and its repercussion gave strength to the opening of the Militia CPI.

“It was a decisive event. With the investigations that took place later, these groups began to act in a more secretive manner. Their leaders were no longer public figures, as they were in the past. Support is now more veiled”, he says.

Ramos states that, in a short time, the criminal conduct of the militias became clear.

“It was a total distortion of the hierarchy within battalions and police stations, intense corruption activities, extortion to collect security fees and deaths. A domination and demonstration of powers greater than those of drug trafficking.”

“Political error”

Last month, the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino (PSB), stated that one of the biggest political mistakes in Rio was the support for the militia by the political class.

“The militias were encouraged by politicians and protected by politicians,” said Dino, after an action in reprisal for the death of a militia member stopped the city.

The minister, however, has already minimized the link between members of the federal government and militia members, when it was revealed that Daniela Carneiro had ties to former military police officer Juracy Alves Prudêncio, known as Jura, arrested for leading a militia in Baixada Fluminense.

At the time, Dino said that the photos in which Daniela, her husband, the mayor of Belford Roxo, Waguinho, and Jura appeared did not mean much. The then minister defended herself by stating that campaign support does not mean condoning crimes.

In July, she left the ministry, but her departure was much more due to pressure from the center, interested in more space on the Esplanada, than due to any discomfort on the part of the government due to the federal deputy’s connections.