Unsettling Brazil: Urban Indigenous and Black Peoples’ Resistances to Dependent Settler Capitalism by Poets Desirée

Author:Poets, Desirée [Poets, Desirée]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780817394868
Publisher: The University of Alabama Press

5

A New Siege of Peace

Pacification and Militarization in the Complexo da Maré

Around two months before the 2014 World Cup, the sprawling group of sixteen favelas in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone known as Complexo da Maré woke up to a scheduled operation by the Special Operations Battalion (Batalhão de Operações Especiais [BOPE]) of Rio’s military police (fig. 5.1).1 Conducting sweeps to arrest members of drug organizations and apprehend arms, drugs, and stolen objects, Operação Cerco (Operation Siege) aimed to prepare the community for the military occupation that would precede the installation of four Pacification Police Unit (UPP) stations in the favela. The UPPs belonged to Rio’s latest public security policy, implemented since 2008 with the promise to “make Rio safe” for the sports megaevents and thereafter.2 With the pacification of Maré, the number of UPP units in the city would increase to forty-two. Marked by several police abuses, Operação Cerco lasted until the start of April.3

On April 5, 2014, 2,050 soldiers, 450 marines, and 200 military police officers from Brazil’s army, navy, and air force jointly occupied Maré.4 The documentary Ocupação (directed by Diego Jesus and produced by Henrique Gomes) takes the viewer on a journey through Maré’s streets and corners on the evening of the military incursion.5 As a storm is brewing in the background, we get a glimpse into the community’s routine, into the rhythms and scenes of life in it. We see a boy playing with a plastic bag as if it were a kite from his window; we watch people pass by on their motorbikes, by foot, or by car; we observe children running, playing soccer and videogames, and singing and dancing the passinho; we join a birthday party taking place on a street, as is common in Maré, at which people dance under disco lights; we watch a local market close for the night and stop by a local fair with rides for children, where a vendor sells popcorn.

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