Brazilian Death Squads

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Brazilian Death Squads
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Definition

• Clandestine and usually irregular
  organizationswhich carry out extrajudicial
  executions and other violent acts against clearly
  defined individuals or groups of people
  (Brenner, Arthur 2000)
• State sponsored and maintained, and in some
  cases, states openly promote or partake in death
  squad activities

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Types

• Military- trained by state security to take the
  lives of political opposition
• Example?
• Vigilante- Someone who tries to punish another
  person without legal authority by taking the law
  into his/her own hands
• Example?

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• Police- off-duty and on-duty police officers,
  usually military trained, who partake in
  extrajudicial executions, torture, forced
  confessions, and other terror tactics
• Example?
• Other types?

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Brazil

• Population 174 million (2002)
• GNP per capita 2,580 (lower middle income
  bracket)
• 22 live below the poverty line 64 of ownership
  and consumption concentrated within the top 20
• External Debt 214.9 billion US Dollars (2003)

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• Government Federal (Federative) - a form of
  government in which sovereign power is formally
  divided - usually by means of a constitution -
  between a central authority and a number of
  constituent regions (states, colonies, or
  provinces) so that each region retains some
  management of its internal affairs (CIA World
  Fact Book)

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• On the night of July 23, 1993downtown Rio de
  Janeiro, two cars stoppedwhere more than 40
  homeless boys and girls were sleepinghooded men
  stepped from the cars, approached the children,
  and opened fire with pistols. Four boys died as
  they slept. Another was shot and killed as he
  ran (1998)

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History

• 1958 Chief of police, Amury Kruel chose willing
  policemen to die in pursuit of bandits. These
  police officers were known as Esquadrao
  Motorizada (E.M.) and had an explicit mandate to
  kill dangerous criminals on their own
  initiative (Huggins, 1997, pg 212).
• 1969 Kreuls police had killed an average of one
  person a week

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• In Rio slums, ditches, and fields, dead bodies
  began turning up showing signs of torture they
  were carved with the death squads imprint, a
  skull and crossbones. Notes were pinned to the
  victims bodies I was a thief, I sold drugs,
  I was a criminal and signed E.M.(Huggins pg.
  212).

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• According to local newspapers, in the early
  1960s, police from San Paulo (Brazils largest
  city) came to Rio to learn methods of
  eliminating bandits without a police inquiry
  (Huggins pg. 214).

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Death Squad Continuum

• Relatively spontaneous, less formalized, less
  state-linked forms, such as mob lynchings
• Systematic murder by justice seeking individuals
• Informal death squads usually composed of
  off-duty police officers
• Formal, extra-legal violence, on-duty police
  officers

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• Victims include street children, drug dealers,
  petty criminals, political opponents, union
  organizers, and other activists.
• Rio de Janeiro approx. 5 street children killed
  a day, 800 civilians died in police shootings
  (2003)
• Since 1995, police killings have gone from 16 a
  month to 32 a month. At the same time approx.
  4000 police have received promotions or pay
  raises for acts of bravery.

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• San Paulo (2001) Of 365 civilians shot, 236
  died 51 were shot in the back, 36 in the head
  56 had no criminal record 11 were younger than
  18 46 were between 18 and 25 54 of the
  victims were black (blacks account for 5 of the
  population)18 of the weapons in the cases were
  collected (Caldeira, 2002)

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What do the Numbers in San Paulo Tell Us?

1. Police shoot more to kill than to subdue
2. The absence of witnesses and the fact of the
   weapons were never officially inspected indicate
   that the explanation resistance followed by
   death is usually accepted (Caldeira, pg 246)
3. Most of the victims are young, black, poor, and
   have no criminal record

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Theories as to Why Death Squads Continue to
Operate
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Economic Modernization

• McNamara The poorest countries, with
  substantial social and political tensions created
  by economic scarcity, would be the most unstable
  and thus most apt to use repression in order to
  maintain control (Mitchell, 1988, pg. 478).

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Samuel Huntington

• Argues it is not the poorest countries that
  will be the most unstable because people who are
  really poor for politics and too poor for
  protest (Mitchell, pg 478).
• The countries most likely have levels of human
  rights violations are neither the very rich nor
  the very poor, but those countries that are in
  the process of modernization (middle income
  countries)

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Marx, Chomsky, and Herman

• The balance of terror in human rights
  violations appears to have shifted to the West
  and its clients, with the United States setting
  the pace as sponsors and suppliers (Mitchell,
  pg 479)
• In other words, the greater the economic
  association with the United States or other
  advanced capitalist countries, the greater the
  degree of human rights violations (pg 479).

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Political

• Politics in countries that achieved independence
  relatively recentlymay be more unsettled than in
  those that have had a considerable time to unify
  their statesHuman rights violations may be
  particularly pronounced in the newest states as
  they attempt to build a new nation (Mitchell,
  pg 480).

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Brazil

• Population 174 million (2002)
• GNP per capita 2,580 (lower middle income
  bracket)
• 22 live below the poverty line 64 of ownership
  and consumption concentrated within the top 20
• External Debt 214.9 billion US Dollars (2003)