What we need, at Maré and in other slums, is an integrated action of the State that respects the right to life of the residents and offers them opportunities to be active citizens
Rio – “Until when” is the title of the documentary made in 2005. In it, the failure of the strategy of the “war on drugs” centered on the military confrontation between the police and criminal gangs was presented. The security forces, for a long time, have been saying that this kind of police action must be overcome, as it does not inhibit drug trafficking and generates countless deaths, especially of slum residents, police officers and youth in illegal activities.
However, we have seen, throughout last Tuesday in some slums at Maré, another one of those infernal spectacles, with BOPE as protagonist agent, as in several other episodes: intense firefight with the use of weapons of war, policemen and injured residents, home and car invasions and huge panic to its 140 thousand inhabitants. What amazes most is that this absurd war scene takes place after the federal government has spent over half a billion reais keeping the army as an occupying force at Maré for 13 months. A huge waste of public money, that should have been used more efficiently and effectively in public policies, including public safety, which would effectively improve the lives of residents and particularly reach the most vulnerable families to the lure of criminal networks.
What we need, at Maré and in the other slums, is an integrated action of the State that respects the right to life of its residents and offers them opportunities to be active citizens. We need to guarantee the right to public safety that recognizes the slum resident as a citizen with the same rights of other city residents.
We need public servants, including police officers, to act while acknowledging the human and civic condition of slum residents, not executioners who only bring terror, violence and pain. This only reinforces the anger of the population in relation to public servants and further strengthens criminal gangs. So, unfortunately, we are obliged, as citizens of Maré and the city, to indignantly pose the same question we posed ten years ago: until when?
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
Jailson de Souza e Silva
Director of NGO Observatório de Favelas
