PACIFICATION
What happened when the police tried to take over Rocinha favela? A ten year XXXX about the A trilogy filmed over ten years about about family and violence in the last....
Filmed over ten years inside Rocinha (2009 to 2020), this series or feature will the story of what life is like for ordinary people living in a conflict between state and parallel power. Having captured on film key historical events in Rocinha’s recent history, PEACE will be an in-depth look into the military intervention and attempted pacification of Rocinha, and the way the big political shifts in Brazil during this period have impacted the lives of residents.
The films ask, what are the causes of this perpetual violence and inequality, and what is the impact for those caught in the middle of the conflict? With the aim of analysing what has happened in the last decade as Rocinha has gone through the ‘pacification’ process, we hope it will be a tool for people to then look for better solutions to Brazil’s ongoing violence and the insecurity its citizens feel daily. On a broader level, perhaps lessons can be learnt on military occupations generally.
Rocinha part 1 - MORE EARTH WILL FALL (VAI CAIR MAIS TERRA)
More Earth Will Fall is a micro look at life for ordinary people caught in the middle of the conflict, and it does this through the story of one family. It the universal story of the love that binds this family together as they confront the hardships of life in Rocinha. For Vito, his wife Rosangela and their two young children, Rayane and Italo, precarity is a daily reality. On some days gunshots can be heard across the throng of huts embedded in Rio’s steep mountainous landscape. On these days, the family will sit, huddled on the floor of their tiny hut, until they cease. On other days, Vito gazes up at the hut that is home and shelter to his family, to assess whether the fragile walls will hold up the ceiling for another day, or whether more earth will fall. The precarity of daily life is mirrored in the structural precarity of the favela, which each day threatens to collapse. But this is life in Rocinha, and when a different kind of tragedy strikes for Vito, we witness the resilience and strength at the heart of this community.
When Rosangela was pregnant with Rayane, a war broke out between two drug factions fighting for control of the favela, and she began to suffer from depression and panic attacks. Her dream is to have “a home with a bathroom and kitchen,” and to be free from the constant violence between invading police and resident drug-traffickers. We see the devastating impact on Rosangela when the police invade the hill and there is a shootout nearby. From inside the home, the family members all behave differently: Rayane, at this time aged six, laughs and also tries to calm her mum, even as the walls shake at the explosions outside; Vito remains cool, peering out of the window and telling his wife there is nothing to worry about. But the effects of such violence, among other difficulties Rosangela struggles to deal with in her depression, have built up to the point she feels she will not live to see her children grow up - and she says as much, adding that she would like a film of her life so that her children know who she was when they are older. Four weeks after this invasion, she takes an overdose of medicine and dies. After her death, Vito says, “If she had been in a peaceful place, she would still be with me today.”
Rocinha part 2 - PEACE IS COMING
Rio governor Sergio Cabral arrives in Rocinha promising to bring peace and improved life standards to the residents. There to open a bridge as part of the Program for Accelerated Growth, PAC, a regeneration project for Brazil’s poorest areas. On this day, Cabral is accompanied by journalists, fans and tens of politicians, including his deputy and future governor Pezão and future president Michel Temer. Cabral points up to Vito’s area and says, “This is for the poor people up there in Rocinha. Those who have seen years of inequality.”
It is two months after the death of his wife and on the day of Cabral’s visit Vito is fixing a broken water tank by his house. Using his personal camera, he turns the camera on himself and addresses both Cabral and then president Lula: “I appreciate you are making the outside of the favela look nice, but you have never come up here. Soon, with the rainy season about to start, our homes will once agin be in danger of flooding and even collapsing. Your excellency, you are neglecting this part up here.” With a sense of change in the air down the bottom of the hill, up the top and deep inside, Vito strives to come to terms with the loss of his wife as well as get used to life as a single father in what were already difficult living conditions. His sister, who lives in a connecting hut, is taking a government offer of temporary accommodation in a hostel. Vito, though, is faced with a tough choice: stay and risk the possibility of natural disaster or go to a hostel he feels would make his children vulnerable to other dangers in a place he knows no one.
Cabral, in partnership with the Federal government headed by former union leader Luiz Ignaçio da Silva, known as Lula, is also planning to install a permanent police force inside the community in a process known as “pacification.” Since 2008, the newly formed Police Pacification Units, UPP, have been installed mostly in favelas in the wealthy Zona Sul region of the city, with the said objective of reducing the violence in areas close to the upcoming World Cup (2014) and Olympics (2016). The plan was to be a win-win for the working class and middle class: favela residents would finally have access to social services and not have to live under the oppressive rule of heavily armed and violent drug-traffickers; the middle-class could hope to one day not live in fear of being robbed or violently assaulted by their poorer neighbours. Lula and Cabral were an unlikely partnership from different sides of the political spectrum, but their aims met when it came to the idea of being able to take back control of informal and illegal markets that have grown inside Rio’s favelas. Lula’s political career grew through the unions, where he was a leader whose speeches could influence millions. After two failed attempts in 1994 and 1998, he was elected in 2003 and served two terms until 2010. In this period, Brazil’s economy was on the up and, for the first time, Brazil’s poor were going to benefit. Lula’s economics were basically bottom up consumption: to keep the rich rich but make the poor better off through micro-credit schemes.
The possibility of UPP brought hope, fear and scepticism to the residents of Rocinha. For Artur, resident of Rocinha for 40 years, although he does not like the presence of drug traffickers, he sees them as a source of protection and the police invasion as a potentially destabilising influence. “Inside here, we are safe. We can leave our doors open and not worry. With the police, it will become a big mess.” And this is not the first time Rocinha was ‘permanently’ occupied by police. In the 1980s, the national army invaded and promised it was permanent, but left soon after. But they left soon after. Dona Anamir and Dona Ilda have seen it all. Both in their 80s, Anamir and Ilda have lived in Roupa Suja, one of the poorest neighbourhoods of the community, since the 1950s. Back then, there were no more than ten homes on the mountain. Now in Rocinha there are an estimated 250,000 residents. One of the most populous and densely populated favelas in Brazil, its popularity is partly due to its centrality between the neighbourhoods of Brazil’s rich and super rich, such as Ipanema, Copacabana and Gavea, whose luxury lifestyles require low-wage service workers of which Rocinha is not short. “If they have police down there,” Anamir said as she pointed to the “Asfalto” outside the favela, “then we also have that right. But nothing will actually change, other than less guns.”
Vito once said that if Rosangela had been in a peaceful place, she would still be alive today. On November 14th, 2011, two years after Rosangela’s death, 1500 State army and police enter Rocinha with tanks and helicopters promising peace. The “pacification” is about to begin.
Rocinha part 3 - ROCINHA IS NOW A NEIGHBOURHOOD
“Rocinha’s Time Has Come,” reads one headline on a paper being sold at a newsstand on the edge of the favela. 1500 police and soldiers are marching the hundreds of alleyways of Rocinha, backed up by tanks and helicopters. It is 13th November, 2011. At 4AM this morning, the ‘pacification’ process begins. The next day, police and reporters tell the world how they “have never seen the residents so happy” and “they are finally free.” But, the narrative being told by – and to – the outside world is a different one to that of those living inside the hill. The police and politicians, including governor Cabral’s deputy, Luiz Fernando Pezão, hold a meeting with residents. “You’ve been living under the rule of the parallel power for forty years,” he says. “From now on, you will live under the rule of the State.” In the meeting, the police chief announces that the drug-traffickers have been ousted (memories come to mind of GW Bush and Iraq).
As the hype of the first days goes away - and the media with it - the film begins to focus in on the detail of what this new order actually means in the daily life of Rocinha’s residents. In the Regional Administration of Rocinha, residents came to see what the new order meant for their businesses and homes. “With the parallel power, we had freedom to work, but nothing could be enforced,” said its head, Jorge C. “Now, with the police, we can properly enforce the rules like any other part of the city. Register homes, music out after 10PM on a Sunday, parking restrictions, proper building regulations. “Rocinha is now a proper neighbourhood.” Government engineer team went from 1 to 10 members. Pirate satellite and DVD sales was banned. Lula’s switch from illegal to legal and formal economy was in action. A symbol of this change was the opening of the Banco do Brasil, and back in town to open it was the governor. “We promised to bring peace and have have done that,” said Cabral. “Capitalism has to enter more into Rocinha to increase the win-win game.”
Sergeant Max, from the infamous BOPE military police, in one of 5 interviews in this six week period, said Rocinha was the “trump card” of all the 21 favelas so far occupied by his unit in this new era of permanent installation of police inside favela communities. Why? Its perceived military strength and central location in between many of Brazil’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. But how could you simply come and change the systems of power from the outside and using military means?
For Vito, his aim was still to realise Rosangela’s dream of “a house with a bathroom and kitchen.” And through a twist of fate, the process of moving from the “area of risk” was eventually forced upon him. His home turns to ashes, after a fire started at his sister’s. The family moved to temporary accommodation in another part of the favela, using social security money (Alugel Social), a government rent scheme brought in by Lula’s government.
After six weeks, already doubts were beginning to creep in as to the government’s will of longevity. The media had gone away, as had the many temporary caravans brought in to offer people official registration for work and housing. For Max, too much was put on the police’s shoulders. “On those first days, everyone was here from politicians to the public electricity company to journalists. And now? Everyone has gone and it is just the police. These people need security against landslides and against living in sewage. This is murder, just committed over a long period of time.”
Artur, from his home at the top of the hill, looks out of his balcony window. “It has been 40 years of one kind of law being imposed. It will take time for this to change and cannot be done overnight.” Next to him is mother of four Cintia, born in Rocinha. “I wonder, will things go back to normal after the World Cup and Olympics are over? By normal, I mean the parallel power in control.” It was seeming like the same old story. Police were ‘pacifying’ the areas visible to the outside, and painting the houses seen from the high road. But in the poorer areas deep inside, normal life under the parallel power remained. “Worse still,” explained Cintia, “they have mostly migrated to our areas because the space has been made smaller for them to move. Police then come, they have shootouts and we are in danger of being caught in the middle. We want the UPP, but we just want it to actually work.”
This vacuum of power previously filled by one group of drug-traffickers was now up for grabs. It was not only the police vying to fill this space, but other criminal groups well aware of the lucrative potential of a favela that sits between some of South America’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, with much cocaine to be sold inside and outside the favela. But his belief in bringing peace was still strong and for him it was about making people trust and believe in the new order. “Just as in Ipanema, if there is a problem, they can call 999 and the police will come to resolve it. If they don’t do this, how can we help.” For Max, the plan was simple and would work: “If we are here, how can the traffickers be here? It is simple.” In a community meeting with local Moto taxi riders, he told the, “Do not fear, the BOPE is here to stay. Do not tremble, the leader of the UPP is an ex “Skull” (BOPE nickname) and you are in good hands.” Those words would later come to haunt Max as will be revealed in the final part of the film.
Rocinha part 4 - The Occupation eight years on
Eight years after peace arrived to Rocinha, much had changed in Brazilian politics. Lula, Cabral and Cabral’a deputy, Pezão, are in prison for bribery and corruption. Sgt Max retired from the police, saying he lost hope there would be peace in Rio. Lula’s replacement as president in 2010, Dilma Rouseff, was impeached and replaced by Michel Temer, who was also with Cabral on the day of the bridge opening in 2010. In 2018, extreme right-wing Rio congressman Jair Bolsonaro became president of Brazil. His motto: A good gangster is a dead gansgter. Always accompanied by a gesture of shooting a machine gun. Bolsanaro’s first real policy change was to loosen gun laws in a country with an average of about 60,000 violent deaths a year.
By 2017, violence reached new levels of intensity. Two rival gangs and the police were fighting for control of Rocinha, with dozens dying in the war. The UPP captain who Max told people to feel confidence in, Edson dos Santos, was convicted of the torture and disappearance of Rocinha resident Amarildo. He was given a 13 year sentence. But other deaths went under the radar, such as Pantorrilha, a resident killed by police who incorrectly said he was a drug-trafficker, when in fact he was a worker.
The promised services also failed to materialise. An incline train that was supposed to be finished by 2011 was stood still since then, as the State of Rio went broke. In Artur’s area, as well as the risk of getting caught in the crossfire of gang warfare, the groups would cut the electricity to stop people using telephone or internet.
Max, in Lisbon working as a taxi driver, analysing what happened in Rocinha from his unique position in the BOPE. Looking back at the interviews from that period with eight years hindsight, he will talk about where he sees the future of Rocinha and Brazil’s security policy, particularly in relation to the heightened militarisation of Rio’s favelas. What changed for Max? What made all that positivity disappear for him? What made him lose faith? Was it about his colleague from BOPE who killed Amarildo? Was he threatened?
As for Vito and the family, Rayane and Italo are in their late teens. This section will follow them as they are finishing schooling and either going to university of into the job market in this new Bolsonaro era. Now living in another part of the city, Vito constantly lives in a limbo of whether to go back to his home in Salvador in northern Brazil. But for now he is selling caipirinhas on Leblon beach and still dealing with the hardships of being a single dad with little money.