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Violence in Brazilian Favelas Olivia HaskettCohen Peace ConferenceApril 7th, 2018 “Eduardo de Jesus was on his doorstep in Complexo de Alemao, a vast maze of cinder block homes, when his mother heard the loud blast of gunfire. Seconds later, she saw Eduardo, 10, lying dead from a gunshot wound to the head, and she ran toward the police officer holding the gun. “I grabbed him by the vest and yelled “You killed my boy, you wretch,” said his mother Terezinha Maria de Jesus, 40. He told me, ‘Just as I killed your son, I can kill you too.’ As he pointed the rifle at my head, I told him go ahead. You just killed part of me. Take the rest.” Slide change 3The current climate that we can see in Brazil is a troublesome one, to say the least. There is an ongoing war that is being waged against every citizen in the favelas. As we speak, this conflict, between the gangs that control these cities and the police force that is attempting to control the gangs themselves, are ending innocent lives. After the collapse of the government late in 2015, which I will touch upon later, Brazil has not been the same. As a city once on the rise, it is now struggling to maintain peace. The citizens in these favelas such as Rocinha, Mare, and Angra dos Reis are in constant fear of losing their lives. In order to understand how the state of these favelas got to where they are today, we need to look back to the events of January 2015 and the ripple effect that they had upon the residents of Brazil’s favelas. (1.17) Slide change 4An investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil, into the state-oil company Petrobras, as well as Odebrecht, Latin America’s largest construction conglomerate, uncovered what is considered the largest political and economical scandal that we have seen in the world, as other countries and foreign firms were pulled into the fray. Those involved stand accused of funneling money from the companies to use as bribes for political campaigns and contracts. Dozens of politicians and executives of the companies have been accused of these acts, including Paulo Roberto Costa, the director of refining and supply at Petrobras, Nestor Cerveró a former Petrobras executive, as well as Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil. This scandal, while overall beneficial to the country, has shown immediate problems for those that had any connection to the companies, and as they were so embedded into Brazil’s economy, that is nearly every citizen. A large majority of the people employed by these companies lost their jobs and caused Brazil’s unemployment rate to rise to 13.7 percent in April of 2017 (Trading Economics, 2018). This scandal has also led to the near collapse of the Brazilian government, leading to a decrease in public programs and security for the people. Slide change 5That is why this scandal is so vital to the discussion of Balas Perdidas or Lost Bullets, in Brazil. This term, Lost Bullets, has been used by not only the citizens but also the academics who go to work in these cities, as a way of describing the deaths of innocent men, women, and children caused by the gunfire being exchanged between the police and the gangs trying to gain control. (1.30)The gangs in the favelas sell drugs to support the community by supplying income as well as ‘protection’ to the area. The gangs have been able to rise to power due to “the Brazilian state’s inability, or unwillingness, to provide public security in Rio’s poor neighborhoods” (Penglase, 417). Due to the scandal, the ability to provide adequate protection and training has dropped significantly. This allows the gangs to develop relationships with the residents of these favelas. The gangs then coerce the residents to bargain for their silence, and in return they offer protection. This brings in the idea of ‘active unknowing’ as a defense mechanism that the residents have taken on in order to survive in their harsh environment. They know that it is easier to be silent than to spark conflict. Slide change 6Their inability or unwillingness to speak about the coercion and violence that these gangs exert within their communities is only furthering the issues at hand. This relationship between these two factions is guided by the ‘Law of the Hillside’, which regulates the social relations between the drug-dealers and the favela residents, leaving them with a relatively stable and normative system. The gang members are not there to harm the civilians that leave them to their business. The cultural practices that these gangs have brought to the favelas has increasingly made life difficult for the Afro-Brazilian people of the favelas, in particular the women, as gang culture is violently sexist and racist. However, a majority of the innocent people that have been killed by the balas perdidas are young Afro-Brazilian males assumed to be gang members or children simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. (1.26) Slide change 7As the gangs have grown more and more powerful in the communities, the police force has become exceedingly more brutal and controversial in their tactics for gang violence control. The presence of the police is not a reassurance but rather a hindrance to the peace as they are often untrained and quick to fire, even when innocent civilians and children are around. Due to the close physical proximity of all the involved parties there is not enough space for tensions to subside. Subsequently the tension continuously grows and adds stress to the already tenuous relations. Slide change 8Those that have stood to fight against the murder and persecution of the innocent favela dwellers have stood out in the community. Particularly a woman named Marielle Franco, a councilwoman from the Mare favela. She stood for the protection and rights of favela Afro-Brazilian women, as well as the rights of the citizens that are killed everyday from police brutality. The social justice that she became a face for was shaken to its core when she was killed on Wednesday March 14th of this year. On her way home from a benefit organized for the empowerment of black women, she and her driver were both killed. It is believed that her death was connected to her clear and open opposition to police brutality in the favelas. (1.06) Slide change 9There is a culture of bribery, silence, and corruption that can be seen throughout Brazil in every aspect of the citizens’ lives. This is demonstrated in a number of areas such as through political and economical bribes by those in power, the gangs that are bribing the civilians to be quiet about their involvement in the community, as well as corrupt relations between their law enforcement and the gangs. They pay each other to keep quiet or to keep away from their business, and ignore the consequences paid by the civilians. As I began to analyze this issue and see if there were any connections to other peace work that has been done, I found that this is a highly culturally specific case. There are not many places that have such a unique and complicated scenario plaguing their citizens.Their violence is only perpetrating more and more violence. Because of the Operation Carwash scandal there is no money left for community revitalization or funding for police training, and, as this scandal is unprecedented, we have no way of comparing how others have handled their situation. This all has arisen out of their highly specific cultural practices and as such, the ways that we go about making this situation better must be specific and tailored to the region. Slide change 10So, in order to tackle this complex and interwoven issue, we need to look to the social relations of the people involved. If we break it down, we can see several categorical groups. The innocents that are killed daily; the gangs that have fiscally and culturally taken over the favelas; the militant police groups that are attempting to control the gangs; the government which has found itself tangled in corruption; and finally those that are working there already, such as politicians like Franco and groups like Amnesty International that work to improve the lives of those in the favelas. (1.35)The citizens know that the relations between themselves, the police, and the gangs are not beneficial to their well being and have accepted help from groups such as Amnesty International as well as form groups of their own. In order to ensure the further development and overall betterment of the Brazilian society, we need to look for ways in which to make positive change. In this conflict a major driving force of change has been the women of the favelas. The mothers, sisters, and politicians that have pushed for change. They are tired of seeing their loved ones killed, raped, or forced into these gangs furthering their grip on the cultural components of the city and its people. The eventual resolution of the conflict is an arduous task, but if we can draw the communities together, we can figure out how to stop the violence. In Brazil we know that it is due to the masculine culture that the gangs have encouraged as well as the governmental mismanagement. However, it is vital to the push for positive peace that we analyze any and every avenue of the culture and its violence that we can. Slide change 11The responsibility for the violence in these communities has been placed on the bullets themselves rather than those who are shooting them. They use the word ‘bullets’ as a way to describe the event itself and the violence. As the law enforcement is not being held accountable for their actions the bullets are.The violence that is seen here has become normalized and a part of the daily life in the most violent favelas (Schepher-Hughes) such as Rocinha, Mare, and Angra dos Reis. The idea of agency can be applied here, as the parties responsible must take credit or blame for their actions in order to move forward. In the case of the gangs, they must realize that it is their presence that has sparked the violence. For the police it is their untrained and quick-to-fire force that has killed so many innocent civilians, and the civilians need to be able to speak for themselves and stand up to the violence. However, none of the parties can do that without support and a platform on which to speak. That is where we, as peacekeepers, come in. (1.45) Slide change 12When looking at how we can make a difference in the lives of these favela dwellers, we need to recognize the different intersecting conflicts that we can see. All of the issues at hand stem from inequality among the impoverished people here in Brazil. The effects of the government conspiracy severely damaged the already shaky economy. Their infrastructure and peacekeeping abilities were severely cut and only furthered the issues that were already seen in the favelas. So, with this in mind, we can look to reconciliation practices. In John Paul Ledrach’s work he describes the process of reconciliation. We need to look at truth, peace, mercy, and justice in order to heal and move forward from violence. The truth that is found must be clear and acknowledge all parties’ truths. No story can be left behind when we deal with issues such as these that include so many different components. Peace must be seen as a harmonious sense of unity and compromise between the parties involved. Those that have no voice must be given the chance to have one, and those in power must cede their time to allow for others to rise up. Mercy must be given to those that have committed the wrongdoings in that the only way to heal is to move on from the tragedy. However, we cannot simply believe that all will forgive and forget the acts that have been committed on them and their loved ones. This presents peacekeepers with a unique challenge to map out how we can help them to show mercy upon the power structures that have been against them. Justice in and of itself is something that outsiders to the culture cannot truly give. Those that have been wronged by the government, gangs, or the police must prepare for an uneven distribution of justice, as not all members of a specific group are in the wrong. On the other side of this issue are those that committed a crime with or without knowledge of what they did but still must recognize that justice must be done in order for the community to move on and heal (Lederach, 1997). (1.42) Slide change 13We cannot be na?ve in our beliefs that simply moving on from the issue, or solving the main problem at hand, will solve every issue. We must recognize that peace needs to be sustained, and continuously worked on, in order for the change to stick. Slide change 14It is also important that we educate ourselves, as well as all parties involved, of the violence that has been occurring. Education is an extremely powerful tool that we can use in many instances of violence, not just here in the favelas, to better the lives of those involved. By improving our knowledge, and basis for the work that needs to be done we can give names and terms to the issues at hand. For example the term Balas Perdidas has become a ubiquitous term for the violence that is seen here. Children and mothers use this term alongside scholars to describe what has happened. This new cultural practice of saying Balas Perdidas is now integral to their community. The violence has a name and can be brought to light with the power of that name. (0.50) Slide change 15As peacekeepers and activists that recognize just how grave this situation has become, we can look to the activist groups, anthropologists, and public representatives that are laying their lives on the line, to see what needs to be done to make a change in the lives of these people. Slide change 16The task at hand is a daunting one. The comprehensive knowledge and preparation that is needed to make a difference is going to take a lot of time and effort on the parts of the peacemakers and all citizens involved. But. It’s worth it. It’s worth it to not hear about children dying at ten years old for no reason other than that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s worth it to not hear of powerful women such as Marielle Franco that simply wanted to make a difference in the community that she loved, being killed because of her passion. It’s worth it because as peacekeepers we know that they are important. And while it will take time we need to give them a voice. We need to make change possible. (0.50) ................
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