Brazilian President Lula Leans on Military to Address Rising Insecurity

Written by Joseph Cain | November 5, 2023

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On November 1^st, President of Brazil Lula da Silva announced that 3,600 military personnel will be deployed to increase security in the country’s most important airports—Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo—and ports—Port of Rio de Janeiro and Santos Port in Sao Paulo. President Lula made the decision after a powerful militia group burned 35 buses in Rio de Janeiro in retaliation for the death of a member and a general increase in crime and insecurity across the country. Militia groups emerged in the 1990s to combat high levels of criminalities in vulnerable neighborhoods but have since created extortion brackets and become involved with drug trafficking. According to Brazilian academics, the militias control roughly ten percent of Rio de Janeiro’s metropolitan area. However, militias are not the only extralegal groups causing security issues in Brazil. The First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital), Red Command (Comando Vermelho), and the Pure Third Command (Terceiro Comando Puro) are also active and have contributed to rising insecurity across Brazil and especially in its major cities.

Prior to President Lula’s announcement, the Brazilian government announced on October 2^nd, a $174 million USD national security program to combat organized crime and increasing levels of violence. The program’s funding covers the next three years and will be used to improve policing, interagency security cooperation, information sharing, judiciary efficiency, and security at ports of entry, according to Insight Crime. However, the program’s effectiveness will likely be hampered by the federal structure of Brazil, the lack of trust and sharing of information between federal and state entities to combat organized crime groups, and the continued financial incentives for criminal activities that assist continued recruitment of vulnerable populations into criminal groups.