Favela violence: broken promises and police brutality

The Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora (UPP) programme is a bold and innovative policing initiative pioneered in Rio de Janeiro. Its purpose is to reclaim the informal low-income settlements, known as favelas, from the decades-long control of criminal gangs and to install a permanent police presence. UPPs are implemented once the worst of the drug traffickers and weapons have been cleared by special police or military tactical units. The first UPP was established in 2008 and since then, many of Rio’s major favelas have had UPPs installed, spurred on by the city’s hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games in 2016. According to the 2012 Violence Map published by Instituto Sangari, the homicide rate for Rio de Janeiro city and its metropolitan region dropped from 41.9 per 100,000 people in 2007 to 26.7 in 2010. Furthermore, the Institute of Public Security reported a 40 percent decrease in homicides from 2008 to 2012. Rio de Janeiro is now one of the least violent state capitals in Brazil. However, since the end of 2013 there has been a noted increase in violent crime across several categories and levels of support for the UPP programme have fallen.

Despite the visible success of the UPPs, recent setbacks have led to public criticism and debate over the programme’s effectiveness. This has been brought into sharp focus by the deaths of approximately 30 police officers in 2014 so far. The number of violent confrontations with security forces in the city’s favelas have increased as drug traffickers attempt coordinated attacks to regain territorial control. On one day in March 2014, arsonists attacked UPP stations at three favelas, one UPP headquarters was gutted and two police cars were set on fire. Some argue that the UPP programme has merely displaced violence to other favelas within the city or to other locations in the state, creating insecurity elsewhere without tackling the demand for drugs. Others have argued that the drug traffickers and violent criminals never went away but are simply seizing the opportunity provided by the current political climate and a downturn in public support, exploiting vulnerabilities in the policing model. 

There are a number of factors which explain this downturn in support. Firstly, many argue that the UPP presence has not been accompanied by promised social and infrastructure programmes, and poverty levels remain disproportionately high. Confidence in the pacification programme has been further eroded by a series of alleged human rights abuses, including brutal police repression and high levels of perceived corruption. Two recent events have caught the public’s attention in this respect.

In October 2013, ten UPP police officers were charged with the torture and death of Amarildo de Souza, a bricklayer from the Rocinha favela who went missing in July when buying supper for his family, while in April of this year, a dancer called Douglas Rafael da Silva Pareira was allegedly mistaken for a drug trafficker and killed by police forces, sparking violent protests in Pavão-Pavãozinho favela. Conversely, the UPP’s trust in the public and their belief in the importance of their presence have been battered by an apparent lack of concern over police deaths. This has angered the police and further distanced them from the favela residents. 

There has been speculation that the recent violence is a result of upcoming gubernatorial elections for the state of Rio de Janeiro. In April 2014, Sérgio Cabral Filho, who made the UPP programme his central campaign issue, resigned from the position of governor and appointed Luiz Fernando Pezão as his interim successor. In October 2014, gubernatorial elections will be held and Pezão is likely to run for election on Cabral’s legacy of UPP success and improved public security. Some observers consider that his political opponents may be stirring up violence in the favelas as a way of discrediting this platform.

Complex though it is, the pacification programme has been largely positive. The security situation in the favelas has undoubtedly improved, reversing Rio’s international reputation as a dangerous city. For these improvements to be sustained in the long term, whoever is elected state governor in October will have to overcome the declining levels of public support by reinvesting in social services in the favelas and restoring trust between the UPP police forces and those they are trying to protect.