The growth of "militias" in Rio de Janeiro

The most notable happening in the security arrangements in the city of Rio de Janeiro is the growth of the so called “militias” in the favelas situated firstly in the West Zone (Planning Areas 4 and 5), the areas with lower demographic concentration, and now already occupying the more populated and equally poor Suburb (Planning Area 3), where most of the favelas dominated by traffickers are. The richest part of the city (Planning Areas 2 and 4.1, as well as 1- the Center), has received almost all of the Units of Pacifying Police. The militia started as an extermination group called “polícia mineira” in the favela of Rio das Pedras (AP4) with the support of dwellers who paid for their security against robbers and traffickers at the end of the 1970s. Recently, especially since 2002, militias started spreading quickly, exploring other local business (pirate cable TV, informal transportation, etc), especially real estate exchanges. Militias can be constituted by local dwellers only to give security, but the most tyrannical ones are those that group policemen, prison guards, and ex-military that discovered a new and more lucrative way of exploring favelados. They also discovered that, by advising migrants, who constitute the majority of dwellers in those favelas, to bring their electoral card to Rio de Janeiro, that could also elect candidates to the Legislative and the Executive, therefore gaining a surplus of impunity and protection for their illegal business. The militias have grown more than the UPPs, as shown in the maps that resulted from the survey made between 2005 and 2010 by the NUPEVI team.