Brazil: Violence on the rise and threats against Gun Control Laws

Brazil’s homicides rates have been increasing dramatically. Between 2007 and 2016, fifteen people were murdered per day, the vast majority were black and poor. According to data from Datasus, a Ministry of Health database, the total number of homicides in this period is close to 550.000 cases. However, in the year 2017, 82.684 people were reported missing, a data that indicates a possible higher homicide rates.

Organized Crime War

Brazil’s murder rate has soared as rival drug gangs battle for territory in a country that shares borders with the three biggest cocaine producing countries in the world. The cocaine produced in Latin America in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia – who account for 99% of the coca-producing countries whose shipments reach Europe (UN Drug Report, 2018) – is transported to Brazil, a great consumer of cocaine, but also the main exporter of this drug to Europe. Brazil’s organized crime intends to control this profitable business, and will fight for it, for more information refer to Velours International’s “The Internationalization of the First Command of the Capital, 2018”.

These criminal organizations threaten the State, their battle through the country happens on the streets and prisons, places where the people are hold under the custody of the State, which is unable to assure inmates’ basic rights. In January of 2017, clashes between inmates in different states of the country left, at least, 140 dead. The killings exposed the ongoing war to the world, Brazil came under the spotlight in different international media portals. 

At the same time, budgets for public security have been slashed amid the deepest recession the country has seen, leaving law enforcement underpaid and underprepared to deal with the mounting violence. Hampered by limited resources, the police are responding by ratcheting up their brutality, according to the organization “Forúm Brasileiro de Segurança Pública”, 367 law enforcement officers were killed in 2017 and 5.144 people were killed by police forces. Since the Federal Intervention commanded by the Armed Forces in Rio de Janeiro began, in February 2018, 74 law enforcement officers lost their lives and 916 people were killed by both police and the military (RAMOS, Silvia (coord.). Oito meses de intervenção federal: - Mortes de policiais: quem se importa? Infográfico. Rio de Janeiro: CESeC, outubro de 2018.).

Violence in the countryside

Since the early 2000s, a different number of studies indicate a new phenomenon, denominated in Portuguese as “interiorização da violência”. There is no concept in the English language to this fact, but it refers to a rise of violence in the countryside. In 2012, the think tank “Instituto Sangari” mapped the violence in Brazil and relased a document “Mapa da Violência” in which Brazil’s new patterns of homicide were explained, showing that murder rates grew relatively more in the countryside than in the capitals and metropolitan regions. In the following years, other researches reinforced the thesis, as did the “Violência e segurança pública em 2023”, a foretelling of the scenario of the Public Security made by the IPEA (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada). Among the trends are:

·        The continued Brazilian demographic profile, a young population with high social inequalities

·        Growth of violent crimes in the countryside

·        Growth of legal and illegal markets exploited by criminal organizations and strengthening of criminal factions in Brazil.

This rise of the violence in the countryside exposes vulnerable Brazilian land, environmental and indigenous activist. Brazil was the most dangerous country for land activists in 2017 with 57 killed, while the Philippines accounted for 48, according to a report of the British NGO Global Witness, a global rights watchdog. One year before, a task-force named Avá Guarani, commanded by the Federal Prosecution Office, brought legal charges against farmers from Mato Grosso. At least 12 people are accused of crimes of private militia training, criminal coercion, arson, kidnapping and shootings.

According to the Task Force “Mato Grosso do Sul has the second largest indigenous population in the country, with about 70 thousand people divided into several ethnic groups. Despite the significant number of Indians, only 0.2% of the state’s area is destined for indigenous communities. The land occupied by sugarcane plantations (425,000 ha) and soybean (1,100,000 ha) is, respectively, ten and thirty times greater than the sum of the lands occupied by Indians in every state”.

Political Violence

The United Nations stated on October 12th that the organization is “deeply concerned” with the violence that has been reported since Brazil’s Presidential run began. On the same day, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a statement reinforcing the international concern regarding the tension in Brazil. The commission "condemns acts of violence in the electoral context in Brazil and expresses concern about the disproportionate incidence in women and LGBTI population”. The second round of the elections were disputed by:

·        Jair Bolsonaro (Social Liberals – PSL) a representant of the ascending right-wing, which moved away from the Social Democrats (PSDB) – Elected with 55,13% 

·        Fernando Haddad, the representative of the Workers Party (PT), a left-wing party, which still has the most influence over the Brazilian left.

On October 8th, a master of the martial art capoeira Moa do Katendê, was stabbed to death during a political discussion in a bar. Besides this killing, several attacks were registered, opponents of Jair Bolsonaro accused him of inciting violence. At a rally last month, Mr. Bolsonaro grabbed a camera tripod and pretended to shoot it like a rifle, telling a crowd of supporters, “Let’s shoot the petralhada here”. Petralhada is a pejorative term for Workers Party voters. Mr. Bolsonaro himself was victim of a stabbing, on September 7th, in Juiz de Fora. The attack left the candidate seriously injured, but he managed to recover after 22 days in the Hospital, the Federal Police concluded that the attacker acted alone and with political motivations.

Marielle Franco, a Human Rights activist and Councilwoman of the city of Rio de Janeiro, and her driver Anderson Pedro Gomes, were shot dead in a car in the Central Region of Rio, on March 14th. Law enforcement forces believe that the crime was an execution. According to a report conducted by the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, 79 candidates and politicians were murdered between 2000 and 2016, and according to the Union of City Councilors of Brazil, since the beginning of 2017, 15 counselors and mayors have been killed.

Gun Control Laws

This devastating scenario is one of the causes that explain why Brazilians are tempted by authoritarian measures. According to a survey, 75% of the country’s population believe that “To fix Brazil, we need a strong leader willing to break the rules” (IPSOS/Eurasia, March 2018), 57% are in favor of the death penalty and 44% in favor of looser gun control laws (Datafolha, November 2017).

Gun control laws are a heated debate, since the homicide rates are high, many people argue that the regulations do not work. In 2017, the police apprehended 119.484 weapons, 94,9% of these were not registered. The favorite candidate in Brazil’s Presidential run, Jair Bolsonaro (Social Liberal – PSL), states in his Election Manifesto that he is going to change gun laws to assure the citizens the right to defend themselves, their families and properties. In 2014, the then Congressman proposed the bill “PL 7282/14”, which stated that "Firearms may be granted to persons who justify the need for their personal safety or property". The bill proposal was attached to several other proposals (PL 6970/2013 And PL 3722/2012) that intend to modify current Gun Control Laws.

Surprising data presented by the Newspaper Valor Econômico shows that in the 61 cities with the worst violence indicators in the country, where there were more than 100 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016, Mr. Bolsonaro received less votes. They are small municipalities (27,000 inhabitants on average), that total 1.7 million Brazilians. In the Presidential election’s first round in these cities, Haddad had 48.1% of votes and Bolsonaro 31% (MENDONÇA, Ricardo. “Bolsonaro vai pior nos locais mais violentos." Valor Econômico, 10 Oct. 2018.)

Usually, many Brazilian pro-guns activists use the United States as an example of how an armed population may help fighting crime. However, they ignore cultural and social differences, and the fact that the USA is among the countries with the worst homicide indicators among OECD members (Brazil is not a member), according to the Global Peace Index.

 Berkeley's Franklin Zimring’s and Gordon Hawkins’[1] research “Crime is not the Problem” (1999), compared the USA’s criminal rates to those of other industrialized nations. In most categories of nonviolent crime, American crime rates are comparable - even lower, in some cases. When it comes to lethal violence the United States outpace other Western nations, with homicide rates far greater. And, as the study shows, the main reason to that is because a higher number of guns is available.

Julio Jacobo Waiselfisz[1], demonstrates how Brazil’s Gun Control Laws helped prevent 133.987 homicides (Mapa da Violência Homicídios por Arma de Fogo no Brasil 2014. P65, WAISELFISZ). Some people argue that, since the number of homicides has been rising, Gun Control Laws are not effective, but the idea here is that the number of homicides would be much higher if no gun control existed. Several researches support Waiselfisz conclusion, for instance, the paper “Firearm Laws and Firearm Homicides A Systematic Review[2]” found a relation between stronger firearm laws in the United States and reductions in firearm homicide rates.

 Despite all scientific data available, Mr. Bolsonaro, will probably advance in loosening Gun Control Laws if elected President. The Brazilian weapons manufacture Forja Taurus has been registering a surge in the value of its actions

Conclusion

Brazil is going through a historical electoral process, authoritarian views and opinions are on the rise. The country is suffering from an endemic violence in all spheres of the society, including the political one. The countryside already concentrates the vast majority of the country’s homicides, and the refusal of Mr. Bolsonaro’s refusal in demarcating indigenous lands, his proposals of loosening gun control laws and defense of exempting law enforcement officers who kill on their service from legal consequences, are an indicative that Brazil’s security scenario may get much worse, especially in the countryside.

[1] Franklin E. Zimring is the William F. Simon Professor of Law and Director of the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the University of California at Berkeley. Gordon Hawkins is Senior Fellow at the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the University of California at Berkeley.

[2] Julio Jacobo Waiselfisz Coordinator of the Violence Studies Area of FLACSO - Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, former Research Director of the Sangari Institute, served as Regional Coordinator of UNESCO in Pernambuco, Coordinator of Research and Evaluation and the Social Development sector of UNESCO /Brazil.

[3]Authors: Lois K. Lee, MD, MPH; Eric W. Fleegler, MD, MPH; Caitlin Farrell, MD; Elorm Avakame, BS; Saranya Srinivasan, MD; David Hemenway, PhD; Michael C. Monuteaux, ScD.