The Pacification of the Favelas: Mega Events, Global Competitiveness, and the Neutralization of Marginality

Abstract

Rio de Janeiro is preparing to host two major sporting events in the coming years: the 2014 FIFA World Football Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Local authorities are promoting these mega events as an opportunity to increase the global competitiveness of the city. But in order to attract private capital from the global economy it is not enough for Rio to showcase the city as capable of organizing and implementing these events. Rather, the authorities must also demonstrate that what has been considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world can now become a safe place for business. To do so, what has been promoted as a new model of 'community policing' the UPP (Pacifying Police Units) has been implemented since 2008 in 107 favelas. The majority of the favelas involved in the program are situated around the sites where these mega events will take place and around other wealthy areas of the city. This article analyses the relation between mega events, global competitiveness and the neutralization of local marginality. RésuméRio de Janeiro se prépare à accueillir les plus grands événement sportifs des prochaines années: la coupe du monde de football en 2014 et les jeux olympiques en 2016. Les autorités locales valorisent ces événements mondiaux comme autant d'opportunités pour augmenter la compétitivité de la ville.

Entender a las pandillas de América Latina: una revisión de la literatura

“…Entre 1992 y 2002, cuatrocientos líderes comunitarios fueron asesinados y 450 desplazados, mientras muchos otros se alejaron de la vida pública (Gay, 2005;. Esta escalada de violencia llevó a la implementación de uno de los ejemplos contemporáneos más conocidos en la prevención de la violencia y el crimen urbano, el Programa de Pacificación Urbana, el cual comenzó en 2008 e involucró el despliegue de unidades de policía pacificadoras (UPP), entrenadas para atender a las favelas afectadas por pandillas, en especial las más cercanas a las sedes de la Copa Mundial de Fútbol de 2014 y los Juegos Olímpicos de 2016 (Saborio, 2013). La UPP buscaba cumplir con operaciones diferentes a las realizadas a corto plazo por la Policía Militar.…”

Urban Pacification and “Blitzes” in Contemporary Johannesburg

“…Destructive in the use of police and military violence to destroy or suppress resistance, but also productive as this was employed to build a social order of docile populations and controlled spaces (Rigakos ). The violence of pacification was therefore understood as a constructive, civilizing violence “war, dressed up as peace” (Saborio :132). Moreover, both violence and efforts to win compliance are combined with the specific aim of fabricating capitalist order , from creating the conditions for accumulation to sustaining accompanying class, racial, gender and other forms of domination.…”

“…More recently the state government in Rio De Janeiro has embarked on a Pacifiying Police Units (UPPs) program, which is officially described as the state seizing back controls of favelas from drug gangs so that services and order can be established. However, critics have argued that the program is actually about attracting capital and investment in the wake of the World Cup and Olympics, and it has been marred by evidence of endemic police violence against favela inhabitants (Saborio ). Notably, the Brazilian program was compared to US counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in a leaked diplomatic cable (McMichael ).…”

Construyendo la imagen de una ciudad segura: la disminución de la violencia visible en Río de Janeiro

“…La necesidad de mostrarse capaces de organizar tales eventos tenía, entonces, un valor económico para los gobernantes y sus aliados del sector privado. Por estas razones, las autoridades tuvieron que demostrar que Río de Janeiro, conocida como una de las ciudades más peligrosas del mundo, podía volverse también un lugar seguro para hacer negocios (Saborio, 2013).…”