Violence, criminality and the Armed Forces in Brazil
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of increasing use of Armed Forces within the Brazilian territory, specially in regards to matters of criminality and violence perpetrated by members of the local security forces. Along the last three decades, Brazilian Armed Forces got more involved in internal security affairs, supporting local forces in patrol and policing activities. The support provided proved insufficient and unable to reserve the escalating violence that dominated Rio de Janeiro, demanding a new approach towards the crisis. We use the recent federal intervention that took place in Rio de Janeiro’s security apparatus as our leading case study as for the first time a general was instated to replace the elected state governor and take full responsibility to restructure security forces. Further questions that emerge and the article aims to answer are: What is this new approach to overcome criminality by armed forces? What legacy federal intervention leave to Rio de Janeiro? What are the effects on civil-military relations and Brazilian democracy that the recurrent internal use of Armed Forces can cause?