The episodes that occurred in the last 15 days in Maré, with nine injured and four dead, seem to repeat themselves in a spiral. Upon hearing the reports of the violations, we are overcome by the same feelings of indignation and revolt as when we witnessed, in 2013, the deaths of 11 people in the region, during conflicts involving the police and armed criminal groups. We can also remember the year 2006, when a 4-year-old kid, Renan da Costa Ribeiro, was hit when police were shooting in front of an electoral polling station - at the time, it was alleged that they saw two young men on motorbikes, in a suspicious attitude. These are just examples of the countless occurrences in Rio's favelas that demonstrate how catastrophic the performance of the police in the poor areas of the city is.
In Maré, a complex of 16 favelas located in a strategic area of Rio de Janeiro, crossed by the main access roads to the city, the police relationship with residents has always been marked by disrespect and violation of basic rights. The arrival of the military forces in April 2014, was announced by the state and federal government as a concrete possibility of facing and mediating the unsustainable situation, from the point of view of the different violence in which Maré lived.
In spite of the deformation that this situation presents, since it is not up to the Army to occupy territories with the characteristics of the favelas, the definition of a transition meant, at first, for many residents, the hope of rethinking the relationship with public security forces on different bases and terms than they had until then. It happens, however, that this is not what has characterized the presence of the military in Maré.
The ordering model and the discourse proclaimed by the military corporation, which is replaced every two months, fell into discredit. The actions are repeated with the same brutality historically practiced by the police in Maré. It is incomprehensible that the government justifies the astronomical investment of public resources in this occupation by military forces, disregarding what this type of strategy, in fact, contributes to guaranteeing the right of favela residents to public security. Who exercises control over the action of these soldiers? Who should we turn to when there is a common practice of violations?
What about young soldiers, coming from different states of Brazil, without any previous relationship with the reality they encounter in Maré, wandering, heavily armed, afraid and ready to react by shooting, as the Military Police always did, to defend themselves against a context that your superiors claim to be under control? Who controls or is controlled by whom, in this reality of total loss of respect for something basic like the non-negotiable guarantee of life?
Eliana Sousa Silva
Director and founder of NGO Redes da Maré, researcher in public security and visiting professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP
This article was originally published at O Globo on February 27 of 2015
