Adventures of a Gringa

Occupying Rocinha

Early this morning, 3,000 police and soldiers arrived in Rocinha, the biggest slum in Rio, all of Brazil, and even Latin America, to begin the process of pacification. They arrived heavily armed, some in armored tanks. By the afternoon, troops hoisted the state and national flags, declaring the favela under state control. The massive operation met no resistance, and not a single shot was fired.

As some predicted, the occupation was peaceful. Rocinha, after all, does suffer from violence, but less in comparison to other favelas, notably Complexo do Alemão, which is known as Rio's "Gaza Strip." Rocinha is also a place constantly frequented by outsiders: Cariocas from around the city for funk parties, foreigners and Cariocas working for local NGOs, and tourists. Since the initial occupation was mostly uneventful, it left many wondering why such a massive operation with such intensive media coverage was necessary.

The name of the operation itself seemed an oxymoron: Operação Choque de Paz, or Operation Shock of Peace. It was hardly a shock, given that the occupation was announced well in advance and everyone knew it was coming, and wasn't so much of a military "shock" given the lack of violence. While the capture of Rocinha's top drug trafficker helped avoid a clash during the occupation, other traffickers had time to flee. Since several police officers and traffickers were arrested "escorting" some of the traffickers during Nem's failed escape, it's likely other drug traffickers had ample time to leave Rocinha before the occupation. (In the past, though, some of the traffickers simply moved out of newly pacified favelas into other favelas.) Conspiracy theorists even speculated if the state government made a deal with traffickers to leave before the operation.

A PR success for the Rio government

Security forces encountered no resistance from traffickers, except for trash left blocking some streets and oil poured on the roads in Rocinha and Vidigal (a nearby favela that was also occupied) intended to make the streets slippery. By announcing the massive operation ahead of time and raising the possibility of clashes between traffickers and police, the state government guaranteed its success with the eventual absence of violence by exceeding expectations. Also, by demonstrating a show of force, the state government also gave Rio's middle and upper classes, as well as the foreign community de olho before the World Cup and Olympics, a sign that it's serious about combatting crime and imposing order.

Those responsible for the operation made sure to not only overprepare, but also to publicize preparations. In doing so, the occupation woud already be more successful than the bloody Alemão occupation. The government set up a temporary hospital right outside the favela (based on the MINUSTAH model from Haiti), with other hospitals and ambulances on standby, and shut down traffic near the favela. They also published the transportation and medical parts of the plan on a map prior to the operation.

Government planners also made sure to publicize the "show of force." BOPE, Rio's special ops team, published a photo on Twitter of Security Secretary José Mariano Beltrame speaking to troops before the operation, in what seemed like a scene from Tropa de Elite. BOPE also posted photos on Twitter from the operation itself. The operation brought armored tanks, trucks, and helicopters to the favela. The tanks arrived by coming through Leblon, one of Rio's wealthiest neighborhoods (photos here and video here), creating quite a spectacle. It's as if army tanks rolled down Park Avenue on the Upper East Side on the way to the South Bronx. It was surreal.

During the operation, police found drugs, weapons, and ammunition left by traffickers, as well as the abandoned luxury homes of head traffickers Nem and Peixe (see photos here, and more here). Police arrested at least four people, including a trafficker who'd escaped from prison and one of Nem's accountants.

A media circus?

Some speculated that the operation was created to feed a media circus. Indeed, there was tons of international coverage, as well as live blogging from Globo (here and here) with live news, videos, and photos. Many reporters had on bulletproof vests. Live TV coverage from Al Jazeera showed its Brazil correspondent in full protective gear, with a helmet and bulletproof vest. Globo also did extensive live TV coverage as the operation was underway, though it was in the early hours of the morning.

But the media's presence was better than no media coverage at all, even if it went a bit overboard. The fact that so many journalists and cameras were present for the occupation may have prevented abuses that took place during previous occupations, or even violence. In the end, there was a great deal of transparency.

Also, it wasn't just the media covering the operation. Local activists, NGOs, and residents were reporting on the events on Twitter, and continued vigilance from these groups will hopefully ensure against abuses from the police and military (or at least expose those abuses).

What now for the community?

Now that Rocinha has been "pacified," the government will officially install UPP units in Rocinha in the coming months. But until then, residents are still waiting for Rocinha to be integrated into the rest of the city. The first service being offered even prior to the occupation was cheap cable TV, but formal electric lines, water, sanitation, and internet remain to be seen. Also, improved roads, sidewalks, and transportation will be a continuing challenge. In addition, residents also hope for better public services, including schools, hospitals, and sanitation.

Al Jazeera released an interesting report today on the UPP program worth watching that sums up both the good and the bad of the program, and what to expect as more UPPs are created.

 

Also see - Security in Rio: Stranger than Fiction 

The Brilliance of José Padilha

While I was in Brazil, I finally had the chance to see the highly-anticipated film Tropa de Elite 2, and I agreed that it was not only fantastic, but possibly even better than the first movie. It was a unique time to see it, too, since it was during the week of violence and I saw it in the same area where a lot of the film takes place.

That the director, José Padilha, is brilliant, is not news. He started out doing documentaries, and one of his first full length films, Bus 174, caught my eye long before I was even moved to Brazil. Padilha's ability to assess a complex social conflict from various perspectives is part of what makes him such a powerful filmmaker.

Then he created Elite Squad, a controversial film that was a huge hit in Brazil, but not exactly in the box office: millions of people watched it on pirated DVDs before the movie even came out in theaters. While it was a success in terms of popularity, some argued that the film idolized BOPE, the Rio SWAT, and its violent methods. This movie focused on the war between the police and drug traffickers, as well as touching on corruption in the military police. Others enjoyed the movie's extreme violence, watching with glee as the protagonists gunned down criminals in the favelas. While it was certainly a provocative film, the next one went much further to explain Rio's problems with violence and was much more deliberate in identifying the good guys and the bad guys, and was less ambiguous in its conclusions.

 

Tropa de Elite 2 delves into the issue of Rio's milicias, the paramilitary groups made up of former police and current off duty officers who control some of Rio's favelas, after wresting control from the drug traffickers. It also demonstrates that it's not just the milicias who are behind the incredible corruption in Rio's security forces; local politicians have ties to, or are even part of these groups, and the movie hints that these political ties go even higher, to Brasilia.

But here's the caveat: at the beginning of the film, a message appears on the screen warning viewers that the movie is fictional, and that any resemblance with real people or events is pure coincidence. While Padilha's strong suit, in my opinion, is the documentary, he found a way to adapt this form in a way that is both profitable and reaches a much larger audience: taking real events and adapting them to a script, combining several real people into single characters, rearranging events, and changing names, but leaving the bare bones of reality there for everyone to see. And this brilliant method paid off: over 10 million people have seen the movie since its October release, and the movie broke records to become the most viewed Brazilian film in history, breaking the previous record of the 1976 film Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos, a movie based on a Jorge Amado novel. It had also raked in $59 million as of earlier this month. Pirated DVDs were much less of a problem this time around, and in talking to people, I learned that people who almost never go to the movies went to theaters to see Tropa 2, some because they felt a little guilty about what happened with the first film, and some because they were just anxious to see it.

Here's a little outline of one viewer's hypothesis on who the characters in the movie are based on:

The other thing that Padilha did with this film was touching on some of the most basic insecurities and fears that Brazilians have, even those outside of Rio: ineffectual and corrupt police, corrupt politicians, and crime. Though the movie was especially relevant to Cariocas, Brazilians from all over the country were able to relate with some of the movie's themes. A recent survey showed that nearly 77 million Brazilians, nearly half of the population, feel insecure in the city or town where they live (see some of the statistics here), since nearly 12 million people were victims of robbery in 2009. What's more, 38 percent felt insecure in their neighborhood, and 21 percent even felt insecure in their homes. The highest rates of insecurity weren't found in the Southeast, but in the North, Brazil's poorest region. According to the survey, only 48 percent of robbery victims reported the incident to police in 2009, the majority citing the reason that they simply didn't believe in the police. More about the study here:

 

The survey also showed that Brazilians had more luck solving problems by reporting them to PROCON, the Brazilian consumer protection agency, than going straight to the courts: 88.5 percent of those who reported a problem to PROCON had their issues resolved, whereas only 56 percent of those who went to the courts had their issues resolved.

In addition, Padilha blurred the line between fiction and reality by filming in favelas and what appeared to be real prisons in Rio. In fact, local residents were frightened at one point during filming, when they thought that there was an actual police operation and shootout taking place, rather than a film crew with actors. By filming throughout the city and incorporating real police officers as extras, sometimes it was hard to tell if the scenes were real or fake.

By combining all of these fears and insecurities, but making sure to have a gratifying ending that partially satisfies the viewer and partially piques their interest in Padilha's next film, about corruption in the federal government (he doesn't mention the new movie at all, but if you know it's what next you can see Padilha connecting the two movies at the end of Tropa 2).

While Padilha seems to hope to create more awareness about what's actually going on in Rio, and to inspire public outcry, it's not clear if the movie has had major reverberations yet. But there are signs that it had an impact. Padilha has become an outspoken critic of Brazil and Rio's security measures, going on TV and writing editorials to share his views. Also, there have been signs that the government is making a greater effort to combat the milicias. Last week, a police operation uncovered a milicia in Duque de Caxias, and thirty-four people were sought and 25 were arrested, including 2 city councilmen, 13 current military police officers, 4 former military policemen, a Civil Police commissioner, an Army sargent, a Navy sargent, and a former Marine. The remaining 9 are considered fugitives and are being sought by police. The group was discovered after police tapped their phones and found that they were negotiating weapons deals with drug traffickers in Complexo de Alemao, the site of the major military operation last month. The paramilitary group is suspected to have received around R$70,000 by selling weapons to the favela traffickers, and are wanted for extorsion, threats, torture, exploiting locals, installing illegal TV and internet connections, and murder. The question now is what will actually happen when and if all of the accused are tried in court.

Tropa de Elite 2 will have its US premiere at Sundance in January, though there's no official foreign release date. I'll be sure to let you all know when there are opportunities to see the film in the US or Europe, because for anyone interested in Brazil, this is the must-see movie of the year. (For now, you can watch clips and interviews on the film's Youtube channel.)

Elite Squad 2 Trailer

The Tropa de Elite 2 trailer was released yesterday, but the R$16 million production may not quite have the impact the first film did. It will definitely make money at the box office (assuming the DVD isn't leaked to the whole country again), but it may have lost its novelty from the first time around. At least in the sequel, they take on new battles, political corruption and militias, which should be interesting.

Bope Movie Backfires

Hello Americans and Brazilians in the US: has anyone heard anything about Tropa de Elite coming out in the States? The representative for the American distributor won't respond to my emails and they're already 3 months late in releasing the movie.

Anyway, Globo had this little story recently about how in 2008, the number of applicants to BOPE tripled. After the movie was released there were 1,000 applicants, coming from all over Brazil. One applicant noted he was applying because he thought he'd get more women and make more money.

But like in the movie, very few applicants actually make it through the final rounds of training to become actual BOPE officers: during a recent course, 567 people signed up to go through the intense boot camp training, and only 18 were left at the end.

The movie in question, "Tropa de Elite," was trying to show the abuses of the BOPE and how much of what they're doing is in vain, in an endless, bloody urban war, and that although at first glance it may be "glamorous" to be a part of the elite force, it is actually destructive and horrible and turns you into a ruthless, heartless killer. People apparently didn't really get that.

Oh and by the way: you have to be a military police officer in Rio or a similar Brazilian institution linked to the police in order to apply.

What BOPE really does

As far as I know, "Tropa de Elite" still hasn't come out in the U.S. despite coming out all over the world. But for those of you who have seen the movie, this is what BOPE really does.

Today, BOPE invaded a favela in the suburbs of Rio, Vila Cruzeiro. The mission was to take out drug traffickers and create easier access to the favela, which traffickers had impeded. Nine people were killed and six were injured. BOPE claims all those killed were traffickers, but all of the people injured were innocent bystanders. Fourteen people were arrested.

The traffickers who run the favela had warned residents with signs all over the neighborhood: "On days when the police invade, stay inside your homes."

Apparently that wasn't enough.

I wonder when the U.S. will realize that Brazil is slowly but surely becoming Colombia of the 1990s. We can only hope it doesn't get that bad.

FYI: Types of Police in Brazil

I promised this awhile back. Here it goes.

In Brazil, the levels of police are a bit more complex than in the US or the UK.

We have:

Guarda Municipal: this is the lowest rung of the police, and are technically not cops. They tend to help with traffic and do occasional sweeps of illegal street vendors. As such, they have a fair amount of women in the force, unlike some of the other types of police. They "maintain order."

Policia Militar: this is the state police force, and are under control of the state governor. Since they are technically the "military," they can be called up for duty in the case of emergencies, much like the American National Guard. They're responsible for law enforcement and security, and often invade favelas on missions to recover drugs and arrest traffickers, though many times they are actually working with traffickers, taking bribes and supplying them with arms.

*BOPE: Batalha de Operacoes da Policia Especial --a subgroup of the Policia Militar, this is the SWAT team unit of the military police, responsible for going on missions deemed failed or impossible by the Policia Militar. They were featured in the film "Tropa de Elite" (Elite Squad), showing their intense recruiting and training techniques and controversial missions in the favelas. Essentially, they battle against the drug traffickers, in what some consider "a private war."

Policia Civil: This section of the police, the civil police, is responsible for detective work, investigations, and booking criminals.  They are also state-based, and don't use uniforms, but are armed. Their salaries are considerably lower than American police with the same duties, and in Rio they frequently protest.

*CORE: Coorenadoria de Recursos Especias -- a subgroup of the a subgroup of the Policia Civil, they perform highly complex operations, like disarming bombs. They are quite similar to the BOPE, but are considered part of the civil police. This type of police exists in Rio to perform similar missions to BOPE, like invading favelas.  It is easy to confused them with the BOPE, since they ride in black jeeps with huge guns sticking out the window, with nearly the same symbol as BOPE.

Policia Federal: this is the national police force, under control of the federal government. They investigate crimes against the state, combat international drug trafficking and terrorism, and control the borders, meaning they work in airports and also issue passports to Brazilians. They are the equivalent of the FBI and immigration police in one.

a day of annoying, weird, and then good things

Hi guys. It's been a ridiculously long day, and a weird one at that. Here's how it went.

First, me and Eli dragged ourselves to work in the early early morning. I texted my student before I left, knowing he wasn't that reliable, and waited for 40 minutes at the office with still absolutely no word from him. I felt better because the secretary felt bad and was telling me how irresponsible the student was being, but I was still so irritated. And I still haven't heard anything from him all day, so I don't know what happened.

Today on the Metro I saw a little boy who was the spitting image of one of my favorite students from the DR, a little black kid about 7 or 8 with huge eyes and long eyelashes, who is possibly the cutest kid ever. Anyway he has a Brazilian twin and it made me miss my DR kids a lot.

I also witnessed a really weird thing today. I went to a drug store to buy some stuff and when I was at the register this woman waltzed in, a fat lady possibly from a favela who was a little sloppy and dirty (which by Brazilian standards even of lower class is not acceptable) with her obese 10 year old son. She walked straight over to the condom section, took a look, and then said loud enough for other people to hear, "Oh it's so emBARRASSING to have to buy these!" Nevertheless, she looked them over and chose a box and brought it to the register, her kid in tow. Prostitute? Bad mom? Crazy lady? Who knows.

Then I came home and took a nap, then went to my 12pm class, then ate lunch (where a guy across from me in a fancy suit was wearing a little pin, like the American flag pins politicians love to wear except it was the soccer team Flamengo's emblem. hahaha), then went to the office, and then went to Urca, where I was fully planning to quit, not expecting to get paid for the second day in a row. But much to my surprise, the mom was actually there today AND paid me in cash! Joyous.

When I was waiting for the bus to go to Recreio, there was a huge group of blind people waiting since the Institute for the Blind is in Urca. There is always a bus company rep who stands at the bus stop to monitor the flow of buses who knows all the blind people, so he decided to play a trick on one of them and went up to him and faked a nasally kid's voice and asked for money, like the street kids do, and the poor blind guy totally believed him and was like, "No, sorry buddy." Then the bus guy fessed up and the blind guy was embarrassed but amused. Poor guy.

THEN, I saw a huge swarm of military police on motorcycles, maybe about 15 of them, who were escorting a military bus filled with none other than BOPE agents!!! who were in full SWAT uniform with huge shielded helmets. Cool.

Then I went to my classes way far out with my to-be Canadians who told me that there are huge gambas that live on the property of the condo and also monkeys! I told them to appreciate it because soon it will only be rats and pigeons in urban Canada.

This is a Brazilian gamba, but they also call skunks gamba, sooo not really sure why.

When I finallyfinally got home, Eli and I went to the mall for fast food (just too tired and starved to deal) and came home. He brought me flowers today which was really sweet. :) But he has already passed out but I think he has the right idea.