Brazilian police militias

Brazilian police militias (Portuguese: Milícias), in Rio de Janeiro and other cities of Brazil, are clandestine paramilitary groups made up of current and former police officers which carry out both vigilante and organized crime activities. In the favelas where the authorities have effectively lost control, drug gangs like ADA and Red Command often reign supreme, openly selling drugs and carrying weapons as well as acting as the de facto authorities, building infrastructure and enforcing their own brand of law and order. Police-backed militias force out the drug traffickers, only to set up their own protection rackets, extorting residents and taxing basic services.[1][2][3]

The militias have their roots in the death squads of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Because of their close ties to the police force, the militias also enjoy the support of certain politicians,[4][5] including the Bolsonaro family.[6][7]

  • Corrupt police militias are the subject of the 2010 film Elite Squad: The Enemy Within.
  • The Crachá Preto, a fictional far-right paramilitary group with ties to the police, are the antagonists in the 2012 video game Max Payne 3.
  • In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 the fictional group only called Militia occupies a Favela and protects arms dealer Alejandro Rojas. However, despite the name, the group does not resemble a police militia, but instead a more traditional Drug gang.

See also

References
  1. "Death of a Rio Cartel". The Intercept. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
  2. "'Like a cancer:' Rio militias grow, control swaths of city | CTV News". www.ctvnews.ca. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
  3. Phillips, Dom. "How Brazil's militias wield terror to seize power from drug gangs". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
  4. "'Lesser evil': how Brazil's militias wield terror to seize power from gangs | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
  5. "InsightCrime: Spate of Murders in Brazil Shines Spotlight on Militia Phenomenon". insightcrime.org. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
  6. "Família Bolsonaro molda narrativa ambígua para se descolar de miliciano morto na Bahia". El País. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  7. "Milícia, apartamentos e chocolate, a rota da investigação do MP sobre Flávio Bolsonaro". El País. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
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