An All-Out War Rages in Brazil's Slums

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 30 (IPS) - Janaína*, who lives in Jacarezinho, one of the most violent "favelas" or shantytowns in this Brazilian city, describes the control that the "movement" – the local drug mafia – exercises over the neighbourhood and local residents.

"I can sleep with my doors open because no one comes in to steal," the woman, who lives with her two young sons, tells IPS. The local drug gang stands guard over the area, preventing robbery, rape and other crimes within the community.

"The problem is not the drug traffickers, but the police, when they come into the favela," says Janaína

But at the same time, she expresses her fear that the "movement" would "necklace" her – a typical gang punishment in which a burning rubber tire is slung around a person's chest and arms – if they found out she was talking to the press.

In São João, a favela on the north side of Rio, drug gang look-outs perch on rooftops and at other strategic spots overlooking the entry points to the slum, just a few metres from police who are patrolling the area.

Michel Misse, the head of the Centre for Studies on Citizenship, Conflict and Urban Violence (NECCVU) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, says this is an illustration not only of the corruption of police who are bribed to turn a blind eye, but of the power of the drug gangs that effectively govern many of the city's favelas.

The drug gangs, in turn, forge "mutual support networks" with heavily armed youth gangs, the analyst explains to IPS.

Drug trafficking, which was booming in Brazil in the 1990s, is slightly on the decline today. Nevertheless, drug-related urban violence continues to claim a heavy death toll, with murder being the main cause of death for Brazilian men between the ages of 15 and 44.

And while Rio de Janeiro was still celebrating its successful bid to host the 2016 Olympics, police launched an offensive against drug gangs in a number of favelas this month after a police helicopter was shot down. At least 47 people were killed in the resultant clashes between criminal gangs and the police.

Misse says there are at least three main criminal gangs that control, besides the "bocas de fumo" or drug-dealing points, other illegal businesses like the distribution of bottled cooking gas, cable TV service and transportation.

"These factions each involve a number of youth gangs that control the 'bocas de fumo' in the different neighbourhoods in the 'morros' (the hills covered by the favelas)," he says.

Although these structures have existed for at least 30 years, "intermittent conflicts" began to occur when one of the large criminal gangs, or "factions," tried to establish a monopoly over the market, running into resistance from the other factions and the police, he explains.

"The police transformed the drug trade into an enemy, even though the main enemy is not drug-dealing, but the way trafficking has served as the financial foundation of heavily armed gangs," says Misse.

The analyst, who questions the use of the term "war," because what is happening has neither ideology nor treaties, compares drug-dealing among middle-class sectors - which he says "causes no problems" - with the drug trade that does cause violence, in his analysis: drug trafficking by gangs fighting turf wars.

"Drug sales can exist without this territorial-based strategy. But when you 'territorialise' petty drug-dealing, you have to control the territory, which also means controlling the people living there," he says.

The drug gangs are armed with weapons like AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades, and even anti-aircraft missiles, "thanks to their drug profits," says Misse.