How does Brazil keep the World Cup party going? Send in the army

A policeman escorts Brazilian soldiers during an operation in the Mare slums complex in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters

How does Brazil keep the World Cup party going? Send in the army

Soldiers' occupation of 'strategic' Rio favelas shows just how far the state will go to prevent embarrassment during the World Cup

Benjamin Parkin

theguardian.com, Thursday 27 March 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/27/brazil-world-cup-army-favellas

Eighty days before the start of the World Cup, the Brazilian government has deployed the army to occupy one of Rio de Janeiro's largest groups of favelas. On Monday it was announced that, following a recent escalation in violence across the city, the army will soon be present in the Complexo da Maré for an "indefinite" period.

Rio's favelas are, unfortunately, well known for their violence. Yet, a strategy launched by the government in 2008 to combat the entrenched power of drug traffickers by using community police units (UPPs), designed to bring security alongside investment and social services, has yielded some impressive results. For example, one formerly violent favela has not had a murder for more than five years.

Despite this, continued problems with crime and police brutality mean confidence in UPPs is at an all-time low, and violence in UPP-occupied favelas has escalated in recent weeks. Last Thursday, a police base was burned down, and five UPP officers have been killed in the past two months alone – almost half of the total death toll since the programme began in 2008.

The announcement that the army will occupy Maré is surprising, not least because it does not yet have a UPP and has not been caught up in the recent violence. Why, then, is the government determined that it be occupied and not the places that have been the scenes of conflict? Officials initially claimed it was being used by gangsters across the city to meet and plan attacks elsewhere, though quickly backtracked on their comments.

It should be noted that Maré, a complex of 16 favelas with 130,000 residents, is home to three drug-trafficking factions and militias of corrupt ex-policemen, with a dysfunctional police battalion thrown into the mix. Everyone agrees that some sort of intervention is needed to wrestle power from these gangs. Like all of Rio's citizens, Maré's residents have a right to security too.

However, it is far from clear that this is what the government is prioritising. Situated on the route from the airport to the city centre, Maré is a place of high visibility and "strategic" importance, according to the state governor, Sérgio Cabral. In other words, every tourist who visits the city drives past a territory that is barely within the state's control, creating a significant lapse in its security strategy and an ever-present thorn in its side.

It is therefore essential to Cabral and his security secretary, José Mariano Beltrame, that they are seen to be taking control. While a UPP for Maré has been discussed for many months, all indicators suggest it has been set aside until after the World Cup. Now, with the publicity of the recent violence against police elsewhere in the city, they saw an opportunity to temporarily bypass the UPP programme, whose vulnerability has been exposed, and any pretence of community policing or the social initiatives that came with it.

Instead, they are using the current situation as a pretext for an unprecedented militarisation of Maré – there is to be one officer to every 55 residents, compared with the state average of one for 369 people – allowing them maximum control for an "indefinite" period before a UPP is eventually set up. Or rather, for as long as they need to make sure the World Cup runs smoothly.

The arbitrary and brutal rule of gangs and militias is an ill that must be addressed in Rio, and some sort of intervention is undoubtedly needed. But it is not clear that replacing one group of armed men with another, albeit uniformed – "we will show them the state is stronger," Beltrame boasted – is the solution, while the fundamental issues at the core of social problems in favelas, be they education, health or sanitation, are sidelined.

This display of force shows that the Brazilian government is taking steps towards creating a state of exception that will ensure it is not embarrassed as it was during the tumult of last year's Confederations Cup. Whether it is violence in the favelas or protests on the streets, the powers that be will do anything to make sure no one spoils the party.