International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2020 | Page 59

International Journal on Criminology
north of the country, not to be outdone, has seen the emergence of many other
groups, such as the Familia do Norte in the Amazon or the Sindicato do Crime in
Rio Grande do Norte, often affiliated with the PCC or the CV and participating in
the ongoing wars.
The increase in the number of prisoners from 232,000 in 2000 to 727,000 in
2016 has only exacerbated the problem and the violence. Struggles for influence
have led to unspeakable massacres within prisons, where mutilations and decapitations
are common among inmates. The guards, who are poorly paid and often
less well armed than the prisoners themselves, are resigned, sometimes corrupt,
and they often end up allowing the violence to happen. In the streets, the collateral
victims of territorial disputes are the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods
and, indirectly, because of massive drug and arms trafficking, the entire Brazilian
population.
The Pragmatism of the Tropical Trump
Dubbed the “Tropical Trump,” Jair Bolsonaro was never the preferred candidate
of the United States, which was no doubt troubled by his sovereignism
and what it may imply in terms of a decline in the influence of
the American deep state in Brazil. Bolsonaro in fact favors an approach similar to
that of his primary inspiration, President Ernesto Geisel (the fourth president of
the military dictatorship), whose program of “responsible pragmatism” was the
foundation of Brazil’s ambitions to become a global power. As a realist who is very
conscious of the instinctive social cohesion of working-class neighborhoods, he
knows that to copy US criminal policies to the letter—for example, New York’s
“zero tolerance” policy—would undoubtedly be a mistake. Although we cannot
predict the future and the path that Bolsonaro will take, there is nevertheless another
country from which the new president could draw a successful security policy
model: Russia.
The Russian Example
Brazil already has excellent international strategic and diplomatic relations
with Russia, notably through the BRICS and the UN institutions. Despite
their very different cultural backgrounds, the two countries have much
in common: huge territories that are difficult to control; hyperviolent organized
street crime; an “emerging” economy with an “average” income level; and a federal
state structure. During the period from the 1990s to the end of the 2000s, Russia
too was confronted with a spectacular rise in delinquency and the explosion of
small street mafias with an unprecedented level of violent behavior. In 2018, even
though the situation varies across Russia, the crime rate now falls within the low
European average.
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