Miami Herald
When Maria Izabel Marques moved to the poor periphery of this sprawling metropolis more than a decade ago, battling gangs had turned her neighborhood into a war zone.
Bullet-riddled bodies were left on the roads near her house, she said, and residents feared walking the streets at night. ”This was a mean place back then,” the 58-year-old said. “We lived side by side with death then.”
Such horror stories are becoming a thing of the past, however, as Brazil’s richest and most populous state enjoys the fruits of an eight-year public safety campaign that’s revived neighborhoods such as Marques’ and become a model for other Brazilian states.
The plan’s success produced on Dec. 7 what Sao Paulo state security secretary Ronaldo Marzagao said was a milestone for the city of Sao Paulo, home to 11 million people: For the first time in five decades, a whole day went by without a homicide.
Cutting crime in Sao Paulo is no small feat. With 40 million people, Sao Paulo state has as many people as Colombia and Argentina.
Since 1999, homicide rates have fallen by 70 percent statewide, and indices of armed robberies, vehicle thefts and other crimes also have dropped.
While the murder rate in Sao Paulo — 11 per 100,000 people this year — remains twice that of the United States, it’s half the Brazilian average and only a fourth of the homicide rate in Rio de Janeiro state, where gun battles between state police and drug gangs have claimed hundreds of lives this year.
INTELLIGENCE PAYS OFF
What’s made the difference seems simple but is revolutionary in a country where police often enter poor neighborhoods with guns blazing.
State police have put more emphasis on gathering intelligence about the gangs they’re battling before confronting them and are trying to avoid firefights that often kill the innocent, Marzagao said. At the same time, the state has brought more social services to abandoned areas where gangs have long ruled.
That’s included launching ”saturation operations” in which hundreds of police officers and social workers occupy troubled neighborhoods for months to weed out gang leaders and establish a government presence.
One such operation occupied Marques’ neighborhood for nearly 90 days last year, triggering an 80 percent drop in homicide rates there. ”Our plan is to plant the flag of the government where it’s now absent,” Marzagao said.
Critics counter that the connection between government action and the drop in crime was tenuous and that problems such as police abuse and powerful drug gangs remain critical.
Three waves of attacks by the powerful prison gang First Command of the Capital, which claimed 172 lives around the state in 2006, proved that crime was still out of control, said Paulo de Mesquita Neto, the coordinator of the human rights program for the Department of Violence Studies at the University of Sao Paulo.
RISE OF PRISON GANGS
Rather than attacking the root causes of street crime, De Mesquita said, the state has thrown thousands of people behind bars. That’s encouraged the growth of prison gangs capable of striking anywhere in the state. Since 1996, the state’s prison population has jumped by about 130 percent to nearly 140,000. About 40 percent of Brazil’s inmate population is in Sao Paulo.
Marzagao responded that putting more criminals behind bars was an essential first step to getting crime rates down.
”The professional criminal needs to be in prison, and that’s why the prisons are full,” Marzagao said. “But there are two sides to what we’re doing, and we’re not just locking people up.”
Marques said the big question now is how long the trend will last in rehabilitated neighborhoods such as hers.
Standing at the office window of the community association she heads, Marques said she remembered the bad old days of nighttime gun battles and rampant drug dealing in her neighborhood.
She pointed to a long, white building that had been the local headquarters of the First Command of the Capital. After the gang left years ago, the building became a church.
”You don’t hear about people dying every day anymore,” she said. “The police have acted.”
Join the discussionThe Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what’s in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
