Gardênia Azul is a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro that hides a slightly less impressive reality behind its beautiful name. The flowers here are conspicuous by their absence, and the closest thing to a garden are the weeds surrounding a fetid ditch that is, after all, the central axis of the neighborhood. But residents are happy as the city council has just put in new benches, a bike path and some pretty blue stalls for street vendors. “It was much worse before,” explains a passer-by. They are also somewhat relieved because after very tense weeks, the neighborhood is finally breathing some calm. This is one of the western regions of Rio historically controlled by the militia (paramilitary groups usually made up of ex-policemen, firefighters or the military) who have been under siege by drug traffickers for months due to the expansion of Comando Vermelho (CV), the main faction of the city.
“For as long as I can remember, Gardênia Azul has always been in the hands of the parallel power,” explains a representative of the neighborhood association, who preferred not to be named in relation to drug trafficking and the so-called militia. “Now we are calmer, but there was a lot of war on one side and the other. They say it’s a war between the militia and the drug trade, but we never really know what’s going on. We don’t stop with our social projects, we keep going with everything,” he says.
According to a Geni/UFF study last year, two million people in Rio de Janeiro live under the yoke of drug trafficking and another 1.7 million are being held hostage by the militia. Resisting as best they can in the midst of this never-ending confrontation is what millions of cariocas do every day. This is the case of Marlene Dias, a resident of Gardênia Azul, who leaves her house every day at half past five, fearing that a stray bullet will cross her path to the bus stop that takes her to the supermarket where she works. “My fear now is that the police will pull out and everything will go back to how it was a few weeks ago. We are in God’s hands,” she says resignedly.
For many years, this neighborhood was dominated by Cristiano Girão, a militiaman who hired Ronnie Lessa, one of the prisoners of the murder of former councilwoman Marielle Franco, to assassinate a rival. Gardenia Azul was also the voting stronghold of former mayor Marcello Siciliano, who was under investigation by police after a witness accused him of ordering the famous activist’s death. He denied everything and said they were looking for a scapegoat. Ultimately, he was not charged.
Generally, dominance in these neighborhoods is exercised on the basis of merchant extortion and abusive pricing when offering services such as internet, gas, and even whole homes. The neighbors’ representative assumes so, but says he doesn’t know anyone who suffers from it. “I don’t know anything about that,” he says evasively. The calm that usually reigns in neighborhoods dominated by these paramilitary mafias is very relative, it’s a calm built on threats and fear.
Weapons confiscated by the Military Police in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Military Police of Rio de Janeiro
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In recent years, the militias that control this and other neighboring neighborhoods (such as Rio das Pedras, Praça Seca or Campinho) have been badly hit by police investigations and many of their leaders are behind bars. This momentary weakness and internal infighting partly explains the progression of drug trafficking in these areas. Carolina Grillo, one of the coordinators of the New Illegalisms Study Group (Geni) at Fluminense Federal University (UFF), explains over the phone: “It is true that there is a more accentuated trend towards territorial expansion by the Comando Vermelho, but it is so the CV is always looking for room to advance, it has a war policy. For them, it’s about honor and glory. To make a name for yourself, conquest is something important,” he emphasizes.
Some local media pointed to something so fortuitous as one of the causes of the spread of drug trafficking that, for his 53rd birthday, Doca, one of the leaders of the Dome, would have requested the conquest of new territories as a gift, if possible, they were in the hands of the militia
The specialist is wary of such hard-to-verify conclusions, pointing out that unlike other more vertical factions with a clear hierarchy (like the capital’s São Paulo-born First Command), the Comando Vermelho operates with a more dispersed demeanor. “Each favela wages its war, each owner of the morro (hill) wages his war of expansion (…) it is not possible to know if it is an articulated action or if it is a matter of isolated things,” he points out.
It’s also very difficult to define exactly what’s going on because the relationship between the drug trade and the military is quite promiscuous. Aside from the fact that there are fewer and fewer differences between these two forms of organized crime (there are militias who deal in drugs and drug dealers who extort local businesses), depending on the neighborhood and circumstances, they can band together to take down a common enemy overthrow .
For specialist Grillo, there are indeed many indications that the continuous shootings that have so frightened the residents of Gardênia Azul in recent times corresponded to an “internal coup”: militiamen overthrew other militiamen with the help of drug dealers from the neighboring Cidade of God. This district, made famous by the film of the same name, is one of the bases from which the CV launches its attacks.
The two parts of the city are separated by a road and a few hundred meters away there is a border that has always been a focal point. Now, in Gardênia Azul, an armored vehicle of the Military Police Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) is displayed in the central square as a guarantee of peace. Neighbors appreciate the increased police presence, but in general police operations continue to leave the usual trail of blood. At the end of March, 13 suspected criminals died in an operation by agents to stem these drug invasions in São Gonçalo. When police were questioned about these latest operations, they responded in a note that they are stepping up security in the most sensitive neighborhoods and that they have arrested 270 people and confiscated 87 firearms, including 28 rifles, since the end of February.
For Grillo, these operations do not serve as security but as fuel and ultimately strengthen one of the two sides. “The most important thing would be that with the intelligence they manage, they protect the population that is in the middle of this crossfire,” he laments.
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