The barricades are a symptom of drug feudalism, a sphere of territory that goes beyond the drug trade

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Y. is a resident of Morro dos Macacos, in Villa Isabel, also located in the northern region of Rio. It is located about ten kilometers in a straight line from Cordoville and Cidade Alta. In the 16th century, Morro dos Macacos was part of a farm and was owned by the Jesuits. In the seventeenth century, it belonged to the Portuguese Crown. Currently, he belongs to the Red Command (CV). There are also checkpoints there – and this isn’t limited to the favelas mentioned: As shown in Monday’s GLOBO article, there are 13,604 crime checkpoints spread across Rio state, according to state government maps. Which suggests there could be much, much more.

The middle of the ten kilometers between the two slum groups’ homes is also controlled by CV. There are, of course, also a lot of barricades. Faction doesn’t matter: what drives drug traffickers in Rio is the fight for more territory; They advance their expansionist project armed with guns and a hatred for their opponents, the police, and anyone who stands in their way.

This desire for more slums has good reason. From an Alawite perspective, why are drug dealers fighting for control of the area? Selling drugs and controlling alleys are two actions that do not need to go together, one ultimately hinders the other. But if we look closely, it makes sense: drug traffickers want to control the land and the people. For a time, the roadblock served not so much as a barrier to the police as a sign that, from that point on, the criminals were in charge.

• Confiscating a gun On buses in the interior of Bahia, this was the impetus for the National Police investigation into the infiltration of CV into Rio de Janeiro politics.

As shown in a report issued by the Brazilian Public Security Forum in February this year, factions benefit more in the country from the illegal sale of fuel, tobacco and counterfeit drinks than from cocaine or marijuana. In Rio’s case, collecting fees from merchants and residents and selling services; In Rocinha, for example, more money from extortion enters the Comando Vermelho coffers than from the trade that led to these criminals being called drug traffickers.

Thus, this drug trafficking label has become outdated. A crime lord in Rio’s slums, these days, reflects the attitude of a 12th-century feudal lord. He charges fees, exploits services, and with a gun in his hand and a bad idea in his head, he subjugates the population as if they were his own. Criminals create their own rules of laws and behavior, defend their borders with barricades, gates and weapons and decide who can or cannot get in there. It is the medieval version of territorial control, seasoned only with dust. In short, a drug fiefdom.

• “No one believes that the police officer beheaded the criminal.” Castro said of the massive operation in and between Alemão

The regional fury of organized crime ends up generating a mass exodus: the Bras de Pena neighborhood, next to Cidade Alta, had a population of 59,000 in 2010; By 2022, the number had shrunk to 45,000. Cordoville dried up from 45,000 inhabitants to about 35,000 inhabitants. The Benha district shrank from 48 thousand to 37 thousand people. Combined, more than 2,300 private homes remained vacant in these three neighborhoods, according to 2022 Census data. Those who can are leaving.

Operation Baricada Zero, announced on Monday by Governor Claudio Castro, is a first step towards reclaiming the territory. Less by the end of the blockade on police entry and more by the resumption of the simple right to come and go, which has become a luxury for many people living in the slums and their surroundings not by choice, but by necessity.