Born Under a Bad Sign

Abstract

Abstract Rio de Janeiro’s ‘war on drugs’ is notorious for its outrageous violence in the metropolis’ poorest neighbourhoods, the ‘favelas’, which are home to over a million people. Many of these favelas are under the rule of heavily armed drug gangs whose social and territorial control is only sporadically challenged by the state. The local government has increasingly opted for so-called ’incursions’ into these dangerous places, i.e., raid-like operations by special police units to arrest criminal suspects and confiscate weapons and illegal narcotic drugs. Whenever possible, these units are protected by armoured vehicles and ironclad helicopters with snipers on board. Routinely, this ‘war approach’ results in the use of lethal force and other traumatic incidents. More than once, Brazil has been internationally condemned for serious human rights violations in this particular context. Meanwhile, alarming references suggest that arbitrary killings and other inhumane acts have recently become widespread or even systematic, raising the question of whether there is a reasonable basis to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed. This article examines the crime’s contextual elements by focussing on the period of Federal Intervention into public security matters within the jurisdiction of the state of Rio de Janeiro (16 February 2018–31 December 2018).