New chief of military police announced in Rio: Why the revolving door?
Rio de Janeiro's military police announced its fifth change in command in seven years. The security institution has been plagued by challenges including controlling troops during 2013 street demonstrations.
Rio de Janeiro's military police announced its fifth change in command in seven years. The security institution has been plagued by challenges including controlling troops during 2013 street demonstrations.
鈥⑻�A version of this post ran on the author's blog,听riorealblog.com.听The views expressed are the author's own.
Jos茅 Mariano Beltrame announced [late last week] the听fifth change听in command of听Rio鈥檚 military police since he began racking up his own record seven-plus years as听state public safety secretary, in 2007.
Mr. Beltrame said that as of January the new commander will be Col.听Alberto Pinheiro Neto, former听BOPE (elite squad) commander, who leaves his post as head of TV Globo鈥檚 security force to return to active military police duty. From now until听January听Col. 脥bis Silva Pereira will run the military police and then become Pinheiro Neto鈥檚 chief of staff.
Jos茅 Luis Castro Menezes is the departing commander, defenestrated (with a slight delay due to the elections) by听听a corruption crisis 鈥� affecting top echelons of the military police 鈥� that broke in September.
The reasons for the parade of commanders over the听47,000 men and women of the military police reveal the troubled institution鈥檚 greatest challenges. Previous substitutions took place because of听a lack of adequate control over troops;听alleged incompetence in policing the 2013 street demonstrations;听a fatal personnel choice; and听apparent difficulty in modernizing the force.
Beltrame鈥檚 continued supremacy, as determined by reelected governor Luiz Fernando 鈥淧ez茫o鈥� Souza, indicates confidence in his ability to still try and get management of the Military and Civil Police forces right, despite enormous problems.
This time, the听Silva Pereira/Pinheiro Neto duo may be a听good cop/bad cop approach. Until the Brazilian police undergo deep reform, including demilitarization, which requires听constitutional change, administrators will have听to perform the acrobatic feats of conducting the transition from a war on crime to crime prevention, keeping order in the ranks, and reducing corruption. Plus听the additional task of听hosting the Olympics with full,听just听security.
A听humanista听and听Foucault reader, Silva Pereira admires听Carlos Magno Nazareth Cerqueira, the community policing pioneer assassinated in听1999.听He plans to make the police more agile, modernize work conditions, and deepen the fight against corruption.听Pinheiro Neto听is a听specialist in management and operations planning, and headed up the Complexo do Alem茫o [favela] occupation.
According to specialists, paramilitary gangs have been moving away from direct roles in state and Rio city politics听to focus on getting rich on their illegal activities. They are said to be collecting fees听during normal police shifts, in uniform, and driving police vehicles.
The September crisis, which involved听the suspicion听that bribes and payoffs were shared at various levels of the police hierarchy, suggests that corruption is more common than many of us would have liked to believe. Indirectly, the accusations that have appeared in听testimony听given by former听Petrobras director Paulo Roberto Costa听and a black market dollar dealer in a kickback scheme at the oil company and among politicians reinforce the sense that integrity听is scarce among Brazilian officials, in and out of uniform.
If Beltrame stays until the end of Governador Pez茫o鈥檚 term, he鈥檒l be sitting in his office atop the Central do Brasil train station for another four years. [...] How many more military police commanders will we see in that time?