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Regional powers / Comment

Brazil: insecurity in democracy

16/07/2007 By Susanne Gratius, Sarah-Lea John de Sousa

At the end of June 2007 19 persons have died during a the struggle between the security forces of the state and the narcotraffickers of the “Comando Vermelho”, the principal criminal organization in Rio de Janeiro.

The high rate of homicides in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo show that the problem of the delinquency can't be resolved with the militar. Knowing about this, the actual government has announced recently measures to improve the living conditions in the favelas (slums), spending more than 2000 million dollars in this project.

Also the new National Program for Public Security con Citizenship aims to strengthen the social actions, as well as the policital component in the struggle against the violence in the big metropolis.

An integrated policy that tackles both causes and effects of organized crime is, according to the authors, the main challenge security services are facing in Brazil.

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Publishing groups

IBSA: India, Brazil, South Africa

Keywords

Brazil Conflict Crime Democracy Latin America & Caribbean Regional powers

Bio author: Susanne Gratius

PhD in Political Science by the University of Hamburg. Prior to joining FRIDE, Susanne Gratius worked as a Researcher at the Department of the Americas at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin and at the Iberoamerican Studies Institute (IIK) in Hamburg. Until 1999, she was Coordinator at the European-Latin American Relations Institute (IRELA) in Madrid.

Bio author: Sarah-Lea John de Sousa

MA in Regional Sciences of Latin America (RWL) from the University of Cologne and currently studying her PhD in International Relations at the University Complutense of Madrid. Sarah-Lea John de Sousa has been development project manager at the agency Chuconsultig Germany.