It has been a tough month for Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. Beginning with the military intervention in the state and the recent targeted murder of Rio councillor Marielle Franco—a black, queer woman who became the voice for disadvantaged people in Rio’s favelas and who had recently accused officers of being overly aggressive in searching favela residents—violence and the state’s iron fist are again becoming front in center in Brazil’s politics ahead of the elections.
In the Maré Favela, where Franco grew up, an opaque plastic fence is used to hide her community from tourists who travel through the highway connecting the nearby international airport to the city centre. The fence is seen as a metaphor for how authorities see the favelas: as places to hide, gangs to be left to their devices, and places to be invaded by police in armored cars.
In recent weeks, the military has instituted checkpoints in favelas throughout Rio, sometimes subjecting children to pat-downs and backpack searches, or demanding identification from anyone entering or leaving a given area.
In the words of Franco, “General Braga Netto declared that ‘Rio de Janeiro is a laboratory for Brazil.’ And what we see is that in this ‘laboratory’ the guinea pigs are black men and women, people from the periphery, favela residents, workers. The lives of these people cannot be an experiment for [different] models of security.”
Franco’s work and her death is forcing Brazilians to ask questions on their country’s inherent racism, violence and culture of impunity.
