! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! TAMING THE WAR MACHINE POLICE, PACIFICATION AND POWER IN RIO DE JANEIRO ! Tomas!Salem! ! Thesis!submitted!in!partial!fulfillment!of!the!Master!degree! Department!of!Social!Anthropology! Universitetet!i!Bergen! 2016! ! ! ! ! ! ! CONTENTS CONTENTS I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III NOTE ON LANGUAGE AND THE USE OF KEY CONCEPTS V LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS VI GLOSSARY VII TAMING THE WAR MACHINE 1. PACIFICATION 1 SUBJECT: THE PACIFICATION OF THE OF THE FAVELAS 2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND OUTLINE 5 THEORY: ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE STATE 10 METHODOLOGY: STUDYING UP 14 2. COLONIAL WARFARE 23 THE MULTIPLE SOVEREIGNTIES OF RIO DE JANEIRO 29 THE PACIFICATION PROJECT 35 COLONIAL SPACES 39 CONCLUSION: COLONIAL OCCUPATION 42 3. VIOLENT BECOMINGS 43 "NÃO TODO PRETO É LADRÃO" 46 THE PRODUCTIVE ASPECTS OF MORAL VIOLENCE 49 "OS GUERRILHEIROS DO ESTADO" 53 THE VIOLENT PRODUCTION OF A WARRIOR ETHOS 58 CONCLUSION: VICTIMS AND VICTIMIZERS 64 4. STATE ENACTMENTS 65 ORGANIZATION OF WORK AT THE UPP’S 68 REPRESSIVE POLICING: DETERRITORIALIZING DYNAMICS 69 PROXIMITY POLICING AND STATE ENACTMENTS 75 “THE NEW DONO DO MORRO IS THE UPP!" 79 CONCLUSION: EMERGENT POLICE STATES 85 5. PACIFYING WILD MASCULINITIES 87 GENDER AND POLICE REFORM 89 "RECYCLING" THE UPP COPS 94 THE APORIA OF THE STATE 102 CONCLUSION: TAMING THE WAR MACHINE 104 6. INVENTING WAR 107 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 112 CITED WORKS 116 APPENDIX 1-7 i ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS At times, the process of completing this thesis has appeared to me like an open ended, fluid, and contingent process of becoming, with no necessary end point, always in a state of making, and never in a state of actual being (completed)... The prospect of actually handing in the thesis has been postponed, again and again, by the unexpected turns of life. However, while the historical forces of social formation might appear to us as eternal and continuous, never ending processes of becoming, that connect the potency of forces from the past, actualized in the fleeting moment of the presence, with a virtual future that never just is but always is in the making, there are some aspects of our own personal trajectories that eventually, inevitably, and irrevocably reach their end-point, and in any case are transformed into something new. Sometimes, in hindsight, the direction that our lives take are so different from the directions that we had imagined, that we convince ourselves that there must be a meaning behind the events that lead us on this path, that will eventually be unveiled. I am not a person of faith, but if I am to believe in anything, it is that writing this thesis was what I was meant to do. Following this particular path, connected me with people, and placed me in situations that have radically transformed me, and my outlook on the world, and for that I am eternally grateful. There are some people that have left their imprint on the final result of this thesis that I want to thank explicitly. First, I want to thank Simon Espinosa, whose irresponsibility inspired me to do what I want and not what seems smart. I would not have written this thesis if it wasn’t for his good example. I also want to thank the NorLARNet (Norwegian Latin American Research Network) for offering me the opportunity to present the first idea for this thesis at their seminar for master students in Oslo in March 2014, and to Margit Ystadnes for her useful input and support at the early stages of this process. Significantly, I want to thank my director and mentor Bjørn Enge Bertelsen for the interest that he has taken in me and in the topic, and for including me in the work group of the “Egalitarianism: forms and processes” project lead by him and Bruce Kapferer at the University of Bergen, whom I also would like to thank for the financial support to cover costs associated with the fieldwork. A special thanks to Nefissa Naquib at the Christian Michaelsens Institute (CMI) in Bergen for showing interest in the subject of my thesis, and including me in her project “Everyday Maneuvers: Civilian-Military relations in Latin America and the Middle-East” and also funding my fieldwork. I also want to thank the researcher and students at CMI for welcoming me at the institute, and discussing the topic of the thesis with me. A special thanks to Are Knudsen, Ingvild Hestad, Iselin Åsedotter Strønen and Mari Norbakk at CMI. In addition to those already mentioned at the University of Bergen (UiB) I want to thank my teachers Tone Bringa, Olaf Smedal, Anh Nga Longva and Ståle Knudsen, and fellow students. A special thanks to fellow student Mari Hansen Korsbrekke who’s input and discussions I value highly, and to Hilde Merete Ellefsen, who has been extremely patient with me, and helped me with all the practical arrangements along the way. Also, I would like to thank the Meltzer fund and the University of Bergen for financially supporting my fieldwork. This thesis would not have been possible to realize without the institutional approval, openness and flexibility of the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro, and of Colonel Rodrigues Robson, who gave me carte blanche to carry out my fieldwork within the institution. For this I am eternally grateful. I am also eternally grateful to the interlocutors of my thesis, who I unfortunately cannot name, but who I hope see themselves reflected in the way the ethnographic material has been presented. Especially, I want to thank the police-soldiers at UPP Alemão who made me feel welcome, and helped me immensely during my time in the field. Their friendship has enriched me, and I hope they feel the same. I also want to thank the friends I made in my home favela for receiving me and my partner with open arms, and making us feel part of their community, and iii especially Rafa, Junior, Adriana, Binho, Gaga and Bettina. Thanks also to Michel Misse, professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and to Sebastian Saborio who I am proud to call my first research colleague, and who helped me tremendously along the way. I also want to thank Marco Martinez Moreno, André Dumans Guedes, Arthur Lobo Costa Mattos, who have all helped me understand Rio, and shown interest in my research along the way, and especially Valentina Suárez Baldo who’s input and help have been extremely valuable to me. A special thanks to my cousin and graphic artist Gabriela Salem, who’s artistic interpretation of the subject of the thesis on the front cover provides a powerful frame, and captures many of the aspects of the UPP’s that I have tried to convey. Finally, I want to thank Ariel Puntin, Antonella Bertoli and Alexandra Meyer for the help, support and friendship that they have offered through the last year. In spite of the distance, you have proven yourselves to be friends to count in good times and in bad. I also want to thank my family and my parents for the support they shown me through the last year in particular. And I have, as it should, saved the most important person for the end: Javier, who has accompanied and supported me unconditionally through this entire process, and who’s strength, courage, and optimism through the last year never ceases to amaze me. This thesis is dedicated to you. Buenos Aires August 10, 2016 iv NOTE ON LANGUAGE AND THE USE OF KEY CONCEPTS POLICE In Brazil, policing is divided between the Federal Police (PF) on a national level, in charge of investigating federal crimes, and the Civil Police and Military Police on a state level. While the Civil Police is in charge of investigations, the Military Police is in charge of day-to-day patrol. As a military institution, the Military Police is characterized by a hierarchical command structure and strict disciplinary code of conduct. The institutional hierarchy is based on the division between low-ranking praças and high-ranking oficiais. The multiplicity of police institutions and their internal fragmentation challenges the attempt to translate the Portuguese terms that the police use on themselves. Furthermore, some terms were alternately used by the interlocutors of my thesis to refer to the same concept. For instance, o policial, o policial militar, o militar, o soldado, o oficial, o commandante and a praça were all different ways to refer to police officers. To distinguish between the different police forces and capture the details of the institutional hierarchy of the Military Police, I have chosen to adopt the following terminology consistently throughout the thesis: Police-soldier [policial]. In Brazil, the term generally refers to the Military Police, while Civil Police are called delegados [deputies or commissioners]. Police officer [oficial]. High ranking officers that carry out commanding functions within the Military Police. Cop [praça]. Low ranking policemen that compose most of the staff at the Military Police and are responsible for patrol duties and administrative chores. The police [a policia]. The Military Police of Rio de Janeiro, also referred to as PMERJ [Policia Militar do Estado do Rio de Janeiro]. Sometimes I also address the police-soldiers through their formal rank (see Appendix 1), as either Soldier [soldado], Corporal [cabo], or Colonel [coronel], etc. When I do, I have capitalized their title to make this evident to the reader. STATE In this thesis I actively draw on Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of war machine and state in my analysis of the changes in the exercise of power by the Brazilian state. In order to distinguish between Deleuze and Guattari’s analytical concepts, and the state apparatuses of the local and federal government, I consequently refer to the latter either as the State (capitalized) when I am referring to the state apparatuses of Brazil in general, the State of Rio when I am referring to the local context (the State of Rio de Janeiro) and Brazilian state when I am referring to the federal government.