Behind the Gang Attacks in Brazil's north

Mass incarceration and a lack of opportunities are the long-term causes of March's violence in Brazil's north

In mid-March 2023, criminal bands attacked neighborhoods in multiple cities in the northern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. Public transport, trash collection and other essential services were disabled across wide swaths of the region. Innocent bystanders – including children – were killed.

Some preliminary articles reported the violence as gang-related, a very normal occurrence in one of Brazil’s most violent regions. In other words, nothing out of the ordinary.

The state government says gangs are attacking the public in retaliation for government operations against these gangs. Within a couple days, however, it was clear there was a more complex story-line.

Gangs have claimed the attacks are a response to inhumane conditions in the region’s prisons. The gangs claim prisoners are living in overcrowded prisons where they are fed spoiled food, denied medical care, and tortured. By attacking cities, gangs are standing up for their incarcerated members by forcefully demanding better living conditions.

While the government has denied that poor living conditions in prisons is the motive for the attacks, the Brazilian government cannot deny their prisons are a human catastrophe.

Brazil has the third highest total number of prisoners in the world. Around 30 percent are in prison for nonviolent, drug-related crimes. Many of the drug-related crimes are for small possession which would not lead to incarceration in many European nations.

The increase in drug-related incarceration was driven by a 2006 law that significantly increased penalties for even personal use. While many in prison are convicted, as of 2020 it was estimated that over 30 percent are awaiting trial in what is called prisão preventiva. Brazil is arresting more people than its courts can handle — often for petty drug possession — and leaving them to rot in jail.

Rotting prisoners ultimately lead to rotting prisons. Prisons are overcrowded which leads to poor sanitary and health conditions, especially when many prisoners are denied proper medical care and proper food, as the gangs of Rio Grande do Norte claim and studies have shown. The word “torture” is used to describe the conditions. It is torture not only by physical beating but also the constant exposure to an inhumane environment as described above.

If Brazil insists on incarcerating so many people, why do they not properly fund their prisons to improve their disastrous conductions? Putting people in jail is a proven electoral strategy while calling for lighter sentences — which could significantly reduce the prison population — rarely is an electoral winner. Calling for more funding for prisons rarely wins votes either.

Neither is the Brazilian government interested in improving oversight of its prisons. Between 2012 and 2022, not one prison worker was punished for torture in Brazil’s prisons despite an increase of over 30 percent in complaints of torture in 2021 and 2022. Indeed, the United Nations has called torture in Brazil’s prisons “structural” — in other words, deeply rooted in the prison system’s culture.

The abuses and excesses of Brazil’s prison system mirror Brazil’s police brutality. In 2021, over 6,000 Brazilians were killed by police. Like the prison system, police in Brazil operate with high levels of impunity and are infrequently punished for their abuses. For instance, in 2019 in Rio de Janeiro over 90 percent of cases against police brutality were shelved without investigation. Indeed, a Human Rights Watch representative said impunity is the major driver of Brazilian police brutality. The Brazilian security state is an out of control monster terrorizing many citizens.

But the Brazilian state does not terrorize all citizens equally. Between 60 and 90 percent of those killed by police violence are black or brown (depending on the region) and over 60 percent of the prison population is black or brown. Both numbers are well above the national share of population as black and brown Brazilians make up just over half of the overall population. Of the black and brown Brazilians disproportionately impacted by police violence and mass incarceration, many are of a lower socio-eocnomic strata.

As such, lower income and black and brown communities are victims of both the state and gangs. The retaliation against the state for prison conditions targets innocent civilians and the disruption of daily life for an entire city. The people most impacted by the attacks are those of lower socio-economic standing (disproportionately black and brown) as they are most likely to work outside of the home and ride public transportation.

If the vicious cycle is so obvious, why would people join a gang? In other words, if violent gangs lead to violent police intervention which leads to reprisals which kills innocent people and terrorizes the very communities from which many gang members come, why would one join?

The allure of quick money, pressure from neighbors and friends, power, and the perception of glory are all frequently cited. The allure, however, would be much smaller if there were greater educational and career opportunities for the lower classes. A majority of all prisoners in Brazil lack an elementary level education and under one percent have a higher education degree. Low education means low prospects and a propensity toward crime.

While the unrestrained attacks against civilian infrastructure by the gangs dissipated within weeks of their outbreak, they could erupt again at any time. Moreover, even though the wave of violence of March 2023 is over, the daily violence by both gangs and the state will continue unless the underlying causes of the violence are tackled. The waves of attacks generate headlines from which the country moves on once the wave has subsided. The daily insecurity is no longer news – daily life, repeated over and over again, numbs all to its horror and is only newsworthy if a new record of annual violent deaths is breached.