Abstract
The national security doctrine, an important ideological justification behind the Brazilian 1964–1985 dictatorship’s human rights violations, still exerts influence on police activities in the country, decades after a democratic transition and the promulgation of the new Constitution in 1988. This chapter argues that few advances concerning institutional reforms have taken place since the transition began, as the refusal to hold police officers liable for their criminal acts has become an entrenched pattern in the courts. Cases such as the Carandiru massacre—which happened in the first years of the democratic period and is still unsolved within the Brazilian justice system—pave the way for intertwining theoretical analysis on both limited democratization and police brutality, allowing an enduring militarization of public security policies based on violence, racism, and inefficiency. Using the massacre as a case study, this chapter navigates through the construction of the national security doctrine, the limited transition on police reform in the 1988 transition, the role of courts in securing impunity for public agents, and the military violent model of action that consolidated an institutional pattern of violations against human rights.
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Notes
- 1.
In Brazil, the military police are forces responsible for maintaining public order within the states and the Federal District, subordinated to the state governments. Each state has its own military police, with its own general commander. State military police forces are distinct from national Brazilian Armed Forces. Additionally, civil police forces of the states, also subordinated to each state governor, handle crimes investigation, such as detective work and forensics.
- 2.
The description and the discussion of the case here rely heavily on Machado and Machado (2015).
- 3.
A think-tank created by the military in 1949 to provide planned development for the country. The inspiration behind the creation of the Superior War College was the American National War College. See https://www.esg.br/a-esg/historico.
- 4.
The term “decree law” (decreto-lei) refers to acts edited by the president that had the force of law from the date they were published in the national gazette. Afterward, they should be transformed into acts by the legislative branch. The 1988 Constitution substituted the decree laws by the provisional measures and created a series of restrictions for its adoption. The main difference between decree laws and provisional measures is that the latter were automatically converted into acts if the National Congress remained in silence concerning their approval.
- 5.
See MP No. 887777, Chapter 2, Art 4(1) and (2).
- 6.
Fiori shows how the developmental state of the military period was strong in the discipline of workers and urban citizens, and at the same time, it was weak in the face of the economic and political demands of capital and old oligarchies, who acquired advantages and monopolistic conditions, without ever committing to clear goals in terms of productivity and competitiveness. The result was an inflationary policy that punished the poor and the middle classes and increased inequality (Fiori 1994).
- 7.
This word is used by Oscar Vilhena to refer to the logic citizen/enemy. See Vieira (2015).
- 8.
Decree 39.900 of 1995.
- 9.
In March, 1997, images of an amateur cameraman were broadcasted nationally by Rede Globo (now TV Globo), showing a group of military police officers extorting money, humiliating, beating, and executing people in a raid that took place in Favela Naval, in Diadema, São Paulo.
- 10.
In the state of Rio de Janeiro, massacres took place in Candelária and Vigário Geral in 1993, Favela de Nova Brasília in 1995, and Cidade de Deus in 1997 and 1998. In the state Pará, 19 members of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (Landless Worker’s Movement) were killed in 1996 in Eldorado de Carajás.
- 11.
Bruno Konder Comparato, As Ouvidorias de Polícia no Brasil: controle e participação, 2005 (Ph.D. Thesis), https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8131/tde-25052007-143115/publico/TESE_BRUNO_KONDER_COMPARATO.pdf (last visited Feb 10, 2020).
- 12.
See PEC 96/1992 (constitutional amendment proposal), https://www.camara.leg.br/proposicoesWeb/fichadetramitacao?idProposicao=14373 (last visited Feb 10, 2020).
- 13.
See PEC 368/1996 (constitutional amendment proposal), https://www.camara.leg.br/proposicoesWeb/fichadetramitacao?idProposicao=24992 (last visited Feb 10, 2020).
- 14.
See EC 45/2004 (Constitutional Amendment) http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/emendas/emc/emc45.htm (last visited Feb 10, 2020).
- 15.
This was quoted in one of the reports. See Musumeci (2017).
- 16.
The discussion on the UPP was previously developed at Machado (2020). See: Mariana Mota Prado & Michael J Trebilcock, Institutional Bypasses (1 ed. 2018).
- 17.
Constitutional Amendment Proposal 51 of 2013.
- 18.
See https://www.gov.br/defesa/pt-br/arquivos/exercicios_e_operacoes/glo/1.metodologiaa_dea_estudo.pdf (last visited Nov 30, 2020).
- 19.
At a dollar rate of R$5.30. In reais, the global expenditure reached R$1.2 billion. Cf. https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2019-05/intervencao-federal-aplicou-r-319-milhoes-em-equipamentos-para-o-rio
- 20.
Law 13.491 of 2017.
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Meyer, E., Machado, M. (2023). The Carandiru Prison Massacre and Ongoing Military Repression in Brazil. In: Radics, G.B., Ciocchini, P. (eds) Criminal Legalities and Minorities in the Global South. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17918-1_2
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