SOCIAL THOUGHT & COMMENTARY COLLECTION:

Protest in Brazil

Its Not Easy, I Ask for Public

Mobility and the Government
Sends Skull1 Against Me:
An Intimate Account of the
Political Protests in Rio de
Janeiro (June & July, 2013)
Anelise dos Santos Gutterres, Federal University of
Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)

etween June 3 and June 30, 2013, protesters took over the streets of
Rio de Janeiro, demanding lower ticket fares for public transportation.
On June 6, the demonstrations against the fare increase were unified under the name The National Action Against Fare Increase.
On June 15, the 2014 FIFA World Cup countdown started with the
first game of the Confederations Cup. It was accompanied by the enforcement of emergency laws and security strategies around the opulently renovated stadiums, which had reopened in six of the 12 cities
that would eventually host the World Cup in 2014. In order to broadcast
its objections to not only the World Cup but also to the Confederations
Cuptargeting, in particular, its disgust with the contract between FIFA
and the Brazilian government (a crucial part of the protests because of
governments agreement to host the Cup in the first place)the National
Coordination of Peoples Committee for the Cup (ANCOP)2 planned a

Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 3, p. 901-918, ISSN 0003-5491. 2014 by the Institute for
Ethnographic Research (IFER) a part of the George Washington University. All rights reserved.

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An Intimate Account of the Political Protests in Rio de Janeiro (June & July, 2013)

Jornada de Lutas (Fighting Expedition), which happened concurrently

with the Confederations Cup in most of the 12 cities.
The sheer volume of people on the streetseventually totaling more
than one million on June 20was greater than past protests in Brazil.
From within the popular movement, the initial claimsquestioning the
forced removal of poor residents from their homes, opposing the reforms
in the public space from FIFAs commitments, and opposing the fare increasemultiplied. Protesters raised colorful cardboard signs, both handwritten and painted, revealing new demands: end corruption, end urban
violence, reject Constitutional Amendments 33 and 37,3 remove various
elected representatives from office, instill peace in the streets, and love
your country. Although these proliferating statements seemed disparate,
these claims underscored a national morality of sorts, and the feelings that
these signs nourished extended even to small cities, where protests were
also organized.
Off the streets, journalists, researchers, and political analysts all used
the demonstrations as an occasion to reflect on the end of Brazils military
dictatorship (1964-1985), usually by exalting democracy. Everyone was
stunned by the fullness of the images, sounds, and air coming from the
streets. Several attempts have been made to explain what happened in
Brazil in June 2013. A few of these commentators explained the events
through a historical understanding, proposing comparisons between different periods of world history and in very different countries and contexts. Some were resentful because they could not predict what might
come. Others were concerned they would be criticized: they felt that their
role was to opine on events, but were wary of making rash statements.
We were all trying to figure out what was happening very quickly, and we
wondered whether the situation would spiral out of control.4 Although I
myself am a researcher, I am also a member of this group of anguished
interpreters. From this angle, I will try to describe the riots in Brazil from
my personal experience as a protester in the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
With interlocutors such as members of social networks composed of
favela dwellers, social movement participants, activists, researchers, and
students, my research continually involved me being affected (FavretSaada 2005:155). What I describe here goes back and forth between two
dimensions of ethnography that are often understood to be antagonistic:
neutrality and being affected. I must confess that at the outset, however,
my enthusiasm to clarify my commitments with the studied group and
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ANELISE DOS SANTOS GUTTERRES

Figure 1: Santana Gate Park filled with posters that demonstrate the variety of the
demands of protesters. Rio de Janeiro, June 20, 2013.

my deepest criticism over the nature of the data collected in these conditions (Cardoso 1987:37) was not epistemologically balanced. Indeed,
this narrative of my experience in the protests represents my search for
two things: 1) that I might be able to advance the causes that I take the
movement to stand for more than try[ing] to understand them; and 2)
that these descriptions might contribute not only to the debates that are
taking place in the present, but also to those in the future.

The Police who Repress on the Avenue are Those

that Kill in the Favelas
With the first unified act in June, a reaction to the violent repression5 of
the police began to appear: in social media networks, on the streets, in
the alternative media, and even in major media groups. However, such
violence was ignored within several branches of the government. Police
repression of protesters who participated in the demonstration on June
6coordinated by the Free Movement Group of So Paulo (Movimento
Passe Livre, MPL)6 which supports free public transportationmade major newspapers, which detailed the violent conduct of the military police,
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An Intimate Account of the Political Protests in Rio de Janeiro (June & July, 2013)

a lack of police officers in the streets before the demonstrations, and an

indiscriminate use of non-lethal weapons such as rubber bullets, tear
gas, and pepper spray. A video produced by a major So Paulo newspaper shows one columnist saying that the police were not prepared to
handle a gun, to work in a stressful situation. He goes on to say that
maybe theyll be preparedgesturing with air quoteswhen they are
not seen. In his opinion, the police would be exposing the populations
truculence and the polices unpreparedness to deal with the population
in city center streetsconduct that has always been explicit in police action in the favelas.7 As the columnist suggests, police action in the favelas
would not be seen by all as it was in the demonstrations. In this context,
all refers to those who read or watch content produced by major media
outlets, which tend to exalt any police action in favelas without questioning its violence or arbitrariness. Didactically, the columnist highlights the
shadow of impunity that covers the relationship between the police and
those who live in the outskirts, one that is built, oftentimes, by media conglomerates such as the one he works for.
This urban dichotomycity and suburbswas also highlighted by
a television commentator and ex-policeman from Rio de Janeiro. In a
newscast, he stated that the lethal weapons in the hands of some policemen in the Rio de Janeiro ralliesdocumented by cell phone cameraswould usually be for the exclusive use of operations in the city
favelas.8 As pointed out by the two commentators in So Paolo and Rio
de Janeiro, the demonstrations show another face of the urban conflict,
one in which the policing tactics used in the favela were brought to the
main thoroughfares of the city.
In the downtown streets, the police acted in accordance with their military training, a form of action rarely seen by those living outside of the
favelas. Demonstrators were injured and repressed, and the police officers actions shocked and revolted thousands of peaceful protesters in
cities throughout the country. The police violently repressed the enemy
who, in some cases, could be anyone walking through the streets where
the rallies were occurring. Since police repression did not decline and the
number of demonstrators increasedwith journalists and good people
also being assaultedmajor media groups (through both newspapers
and television) labeled protesters vandals and troublemakers and justified the police violence by reporting on the presence of this small group

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of vandals who were tarnishing Brazils history of peaceful protests with

their acts of aggression and violence.
The media, in seeking this polarization, sought to criminalize one side
the small groups of vandalswhile neutralizing the otherthe good
people acting with violence against protesters. The media did this by
sensitizing a third group comprised of distant observers who followed the
demonstrations through newspaper and TV coverage. Because of the medias polarization strategy, this group seemed to be prompted to choose
only one side. The strategy was not new, as it has been used daily to justify
the violent police actions in the favela, portraying the traffickers as villains
and the police as heroes.9 In the case of the events of June and July, this
polarizationbetween good and evildeprived the reader of a deeper reflection on marginality while helping to justify the violence used by
the state against the two supposedly evil groupsthe small groups of
vandals in the demonstrations and the traffickers in the favela. And all the
demonstrators were repressed in the streets, just as all the favela dwellers
were repressed when the police invaded their territory.10

Brazil Woke Up
I use the night of June 17when the demonstration moved from Candelaria
Church to the Municipal Theater in downtown Rio de Janeiroand the afternoon and evening of June 20when the March of 300,000 happened
in downtown Rioin order to narrate the unfolding violence against demonstrators and how its end has become one of the main demands of the
people who occupy the streets.
Like the invitations to prior demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro, the invitations to the acts of Monday, June 17 and Thursday, June 20, 2013 were
made through a Facebook page titled Fights Against the Fare Increase
Forum. During these two days, protesters occupied the streets under the
banner of reducing the rate of public transportation and the slogan, Its
not about 20-cents, its about rights. The invitations to the events were
followed by the line It will be bigger on Monday and It will be bigger on
Thursday, seeking to incite members of social media networksthose
who liked and confirmed the virtual invitationsto come to the streets and
participate. Social media networks brought, as the invitation requested, a
lot of people to the streets in more than 100 cities nationwide.

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Its Not Easy, I Ask for Public Mobility and the Government Sends Skull Against Me:
An Intimate Account of the Political Protests in Rio de Janeiro (June & July, 2013)

Figure 2: Protesters hold hands and make a barrier in front of riot police. Cinelndia,
Rio de Janeiro, June 13, 2013.

However even with very clear demands and claims, these men and
women did not feel obliged to restrict their shouts, chants, and banners
to the themes of supporting the fare decrease or opposing the failure to
include housing in the preparations for the World Cup. The experience
of being together in the streets eventually initiated a series of conflicts
and quarrels, but only after leading to a collective state of euphoria. In a
country torn by fictitious equalities and criminalized differences, sharing in
this state of euphoria was a temporary experience of unity. In Rio Branco
Avenue, the choir of thousands of voices echoed off of the glass windows
of tall buildings and, through the concrete, rose to the sky, where a rain of
white shredded paper poured down on our headsthrown by those who
watched the mass of marching people in awe. Although onlookers did not
feel the urge to go down to the street, they participated in the demonstration from the windows of their offices and apartment living rooms. From
there, they turned their lights on and off to show support for the march.
From the windows, they cheered, clapping or singing with hands raised in
the air. We smiled as we walked among friendly and unknown faces. The
tears we cried were not from the pain in our arms and hands from holding
posters or in our feet, swollen from walking, but from confused happiness
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SOURCE: FLICKR.COM, PHOTO BY LUIZ BALTAR

and a sense of awe about what was happening. Like me, thousands sang,
Ooo, Brazil woke up.
The episode of Alerjas the media and the social movements
called itwas a landmark in the emerging history of the demonstrations.
Afterwards, the violence began a long process of re-signification that is
still going on in the streets. At about 8 p.m., a helicopter belonging to a
major media group began to announce, its voice inflected with a sense
of tragedy, the arrival of masked troublemakers in the building of the
Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiros State (Assembleia Legislativa do
Estado do Rio de Janeiro, ALERJ). After this episode, the peaceful and
violent dichotomy was the morality that guided the hegemonic narratives
about the protests and was used by the media and government to further
criminalize the demonstrations.
On TV, we could see police running and hiding behind the gates of the
Legislative Assembly, chased by men in black clothes and masks who
cornered the police inside the building and occupied a wide staircase
which, minutes before, had been protected by those same police officers.
The images also showed a car which had been set on fire and a huge

Figure 3: One doodle in spray paint at a bus stop. It was written on an advertisement
of one sponsor of the World Cup in Brazil and reads: will not have World Cup.
Avenida Presidente Vargas, Rio de Janeiro, June 17, 2013.

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Its Not Easy, I Ask for Public Mobility and the Government Sends Skull Against Me:
An Intimate Account of the Political Protests in Rio de Janeiro (June & July, 2013)

Figure 4: Police carried lethal weapons during demonstrations to curb the

population. Rio de Janeiro, June 13, 2013.

bonfire burning in front of the building, surrounded by men and women

adding pieces of wood and trash cans to the fire. Demonstrators spray
painted outdoor signs. Shops were looted and the glass doors of banks
were broken, while a frightened reporter talked about a wave of robberies throughout the building.
The major media outlets chose to broadcast more on the episode of
Alerj than on the peaceful demonstration. The helicopter camera only
captured the orange dots that were the fires. Video recorded by cameras on the streets showed protesters fleeing police, who cornered them
toward the interior of the Assembly building, and being pursued by individuals dressed in black with their faces covered. Advertisements were
painted, shops looted, banks broken into, and reports of waves of robberies around the building. From inside, the footage captured by alternative media showed different images, such as some undercover police officers firing lethal weapons at protesters while uniformed officers policed
the building with AR-15 automatic rifles.
The mainstream medias focus for this day was the transmission of violent events of the demonstration rather than the peaceful events. Most
of the approximately 100,000 demonstrators remained at an established
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ANELISE DOS SANTOS GUTTERRES

Figure 5: Protester holds a street sign during the demonstration in front of ALERJ. Rio
de Janeiro, June 17, 2013.

meeting point, the Municipal Theater. Within this group that the TV broadcast labeled as peaceful, some people shouted, together, no violence
and no vandalism every time a confrontation occurred.
Among the peaceful group, there was a great fear of depredation
of public propertythis group understood that these attacks were
caused by the violent acts of other people, or thugs outside of the
protest. Some of the attacks on shops, banks, and buildings were carried out by undercover police officers, as was evident in the analysis of
TV footage.11 Most of the attacks, however, were performed by a few
dressed in black masks who were part of a group called Black Bloc,12
which, from this demonstration forward, intensified its ideological and
confrontational tactics.
The thug groupthe vandalswas the only group able to see the
infiltrated police officers and recognize them. Because of their marginal
position, the accusation of undercover police officers promoting violence
in the demonstrationsone declaration produced by the vandalswas
not believed by the state or the peaceful protesters. Those who followed
the events on the streets through information produced by the mainstream media also saw these accusations as invalid. Highly influenced by
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Its Not Easy, I Ask for Public Mobility and the Government Sends Skull Against Me:
An Intimate Account of the Political Protests in Rio de Janeiro (June & July, 2013)

PHOTO BY CAL MEREGE

the images and texts spread by the major media groups, they identified
themselves as part of the peaceful group.
The events that took place on June 17the criminalization of the protests by mainstream media and the actions of undercover police officers
and others using lethal weapons on protestersrevolted thugs who
were, from that day forward, defining themselves as a group and gaining
new members. I was among those new members who preferred to define
themselves as thugs in order to question the comparison with the term
peaceful that was being used by the mainstream media.
On Thursday, June 20, we suspected that the police could take revenge for the episode reported by the media, whose images showed the
police escaping toward the legislative assembly building. This suspicion
was based on the experience of the favela dwellers who lived daily with
the repressive action of the police in their territories. They showed us, for
example, that it was common for police to react violently to the death of
a colleague in combat, usually by taking revenge with an even greater

Figure 6: Protesters react to tear gas launched by the police during a demonstration
against the privatization and gentrification of Maracana and the soccer stadiums
in Brazil. The political demonstration, held simultaneously with the final game of
the Confederations Cup, was led by the popular committee of the Copa Rio in the
morning and by the Fights Against the Fare Increase Forum in the afternoon. Around
the Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, June 2013.

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Figure 7: The protesters, called by the Fights Against the Fare Increase Forum,
march towards the Maracana Stadium on the final day of the Confederations Cup.
Around the Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, June 2013.

number of deaths. Even if no police officer had died in the period of demonstrations, the feeling of avenging the honor of the police was a known
standard of the authoritarian traditions of Brazilian society (Adorno and
Day 2014:192).13
A decree signed by Rio de Janeiros Mayor establishing a holiday on
June 20 added impetus to the events that followed: nearly one million
people occupied Presidente Vargas Avenue that day. Everyone predicted
that the number of people on the streets would be large, but no one had
any idea of what lay ahead. We, from the Communitary Forum of Porto
(FCP),14 had agreed to meet with other groups formed by favela dwellers
before the start of the official schedule in Candelaria Church.
Those advocating for the end of corruption, for example, usually harassed protesters that carried flags of political parties. Some situations
were aggressive and strained, leading to a strategic union: a group that
saw similar demands or motivations in another group would join and stay
close during the remainder of the protest. I was in a group of favela dwellers and those that demanded an end to removals,15 but we also carried
posters supporting a public transportation fare reduction and better public
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An Intimate Account of the Political Protests in Rio de Janeiro (June & July, 2013)

transportation for all. By late afternoon on the clear and sultry day, the
meet-up place was extremely crowded with people holding colorful signs
and posters, some ready and others being made. The strong smell of fabric spray paint mingled with the odor of urine, smells typical of the stonecovered streets of Rio de Janeiro.
I wore a handkerchief around my neck and a pair of large swimming
goggles because I thought they could protect me from bullets and gas.
Through the images I had seen and the experiences of other protesters, there was no doubt that the police were aiming non-lethal weapons
directly at peoples faces and within a short range. Between talking with
different people, meeting acquaintances, and getting to know new participants, my group and I took a while to leave our meeting place, located
a few blocks from the official meeting place. There were eight of us: a
State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) professor and her husband; an
architect and her teenage son; two women, one a teacher and the other
a housewife; two men, one a former bank employee and the other a real
estate broker; and myself; all eight of us were part of the committee of the
dwellers of Morro da Providncia and part of FCP. When we left, waving
and wielding our posters, the narrow streets of downtown Rio seemed
even narrower. Standing, amazed at the number of people in the streets,
we were trying to guess the size of the large, heterogeneous mass.
We quickly got lost in the larger group and tried, during the entire distance to City Hall, to take care of each other and stay close together. It was
the first time we were marching together in the streets, and it was a unique
experience, even for the former bank employee who was used to taking
part in the protests organized by the labor union. Our attention was drawn
to the three large lanes of the avenue, entirely filled with people.
There were those who sang the National Anthem, those who walked
wrapped in the national flag, those who wore yellow and green facepaint,
and those who carried flowers and dressed in white. There were those
who were as happy as though it were Carnival, those in the streets for the
first time, and children with their parents, either walking by themselves
or being carried on shoulders. There were both young people and the
elderly. There were political parties, social movements, and the faces of
a few known militants that we could spot from time to time among the
crowd. These people were not, however, united by a single idea, as I already pointed out. Not even the National Anthemplayed several times
loudly over car speakerswas sung in unison. One member of our group
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was talking to his son on a cell phone, keeping us updated with news
from outside. How many people were we? What was being said about
us? How were we being seen? Could they hear our voices? The boy was
not allowed to participate because he was too young. His parents, both
around 35 years old and raised in the slums, were afraid of the violence,
afraid that something could happen to him during the protest. His parents
veto led me to think about the relativity of the concept of danger, usually
referring to Morro da Providncia, a place most often defined as violent
territory. The violence and the danger now came from the streets.
By the time we were able to see Brazil Central Station and Morro, another dweller had joined us. As the night grew darker, more people were
getting off at Central Station or getting there by foot or the metro stations.
When we passed Onze Square, we entered an area that was suddenly
darker. The avenue there was shortened to two lanes that were divided
by a canal. Behind us, a large group of strong, big men were laughing
loudly and threatening everybody by saying terror would begin at any moment. Dressed in jeans and tight cotton shirts, they scared us with the
sound of a stun gun that one of them had in his hand. We moved to the
sidewalk, fearful, trying to protect ourselves. As if they were holding dogs
on a leash, they stood behind a group of kids who obeyed a few of their
orders, wearing shirts to hide their faces. One of the men yelled right after
we heard the sound of the gun. Amid the laughs, one of the other men
yelled, Run, run, Look at the thief, and Catch the bum, and the boys
immediately ran between protesters. As we lost sight of them, we could
see the despair that they were causing among the mass of people as they
passed and as protesters realized they were policemen in plain clothes.
After this incident, only a resident of Providncia and I decided to stay in
the demonstration. We tried to walk to the end of the march (the original
plan was to walk until City Hall), but we were stopped by a group of scared
people running toward us, complaining about the gas and police violence.
We tried to persist, but soon the bombs (so called moral effect gas) were
pushing people in our direction, forcing us to retreat to the nearest street.
The air burned our eyes and throats, and the sound of the bombs echoed.
A few days later, another resident of Morro da Providncia who was not
with us during the march said that when the gas fell from the helicopters it
felt as if her face was melting.
We held onto lamp posts to avoid being swept away by the crowd. We
shouted, encouraging people not to runby our experience with other
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demonstrations, the panic meant that people ran from each other, and this
increased the risk of everyone getting hurt. However, in this moment, the
feeling of panic, mixed with pepper spray, had already begun to circulate
and our cries were in vain. We walked a little further down the avenue,
and met a large crowd still walking towards City Hall. Against the flow, we
walked towards the neighborhood of Lapa, scattering along with the hundreds of people coming from demonstrations and passing by bars full of
customers who were not part of the protest. The Confederations Cup game
in Maracan was replaced by images of the march on the TV sets. It was all
very new to the country of soccer. I said goodbye to my running partner
and stopped at a bar to wait for a friend coming from Braslia who could
not leave the airport because of the demonstration. At the bar, other patrons and I watched the TV and talked about some of the scenes showing
a police booth burning and bonfires in the middle of the streets. Some of
these events were happening very close by in downtown Rio, while others
were happening in cities that held their own demonstrations and were a result of Black Bloc action. The accounts of violence16 that night in Rio were
abundant and very serious, yet they were not caused by the Black Bloc, as
the media insisted on promoting. Instead, they were caused by the police.
The repression we suffered in front of City Hall was minor compared
to what would come; it would become more violent and noticeable. That
night, Cinelndia, Central Station, Lapa, and even Laranjeirasneighborhoods very close to the avenue and places where people would naturally
travel through en route to their homeswere being besieged by the police
who threw gas bombs inside bars and randomly over groups of people,
regardless of whether or not they were coming from the demonstration.17
A 10 p.m. curfew was set for the streets of Lapa, closing all bars and
stores, expelling the customers onto the streets, and criminalizing anyone who dared to remain. Caveires (Big Skulls, what the military police Bushwacker is called) as well as dozens of vehicles of the Special
Operations Battalion of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro (BOPE) and
of the Special Resources Coordination of Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro
(CORE) passed by with armed officers ready to fire: they had lethal weapons and were aiming, sarcastically, for anything that moved. People were
swept by a cloud of smoke from dozens of tear gas bombs which made
the air unbreathable. Frightened, many people felt for the first time that
day that the police were not there to protect them.

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UPP is Funny When It Happens to Somebody Else

Instead of listening to the words on the streets, evaluating the numerous
cases of abusive police action reported over the last few years in the
favelas before and after the start of the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP),18
and using the academic production funded by the government to consider the issue of violence and public safety, the governor insisted on
maintaining the same program as the solution to public safety. Protesters
reacted, calling not only for the end of the military police but also requesting the governors resignation. Out, Cabral was the new slogan in the
streets of the southern part of Rio and the favela.19
After June 2013, a large number of demonstrations still occurred, but
the claims of the groups who remained on the streets became more objective: the protesters wanted change, not a renovation. Favela residents,
supported by social movements, began organizing their own demonstrations and occupying the streets near their houses as well as the streets
downtown. An end to police violence and the request for the governor to
resign were the main demands of those who were born suffering state
repression and of those who, after June 2013, chose to protest these conditions. The debates preceding the demonstrations,20 sought to gather
more people by raising awareness about what happened in the streets.
This made so that an even larger share of the population could better
understand why weBrazilian residentstoo were held responsible for
the massacres that occurred: the police repression, the invasion of homes
searching for suspicious people, and the police intervention in favelas.
After the passing of Junes euphoria, what is left for those who are still
occupying the streets is an observation of the city we live in as a locus of
spatial segregation of those who are poor and black, a city built by morality aesthetics that still have not been transformed.The groups that still
remained on the streets did so for the transformation of the repressive, aggressive, and bloodthirsty training of the police, and this transformation is
endorsed by them as a necessary change in the lives of everyone. In their
view, only with this transformation will we build the city as a space for an
expression of citizenship and as a shared urban locus, avoiding the tolerance of the use of different intensities of repression as a mark for different
groups, ethnicities, and locations. n

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Endnotes:
1Skull is a popular nickname for one of Rio de Janeiros elite Special Operations Police Corpssometimes

referred to as Bushwacker. This quotation was a popular refrain, sung during the demonstrations.
2For

more information about ANCOP, see the groups website, http://www.portalpopulardacopa.org.

br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=366&Itemid=279 and the video World Cup 2014:
Who wins the match? available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAX0zSfrJK4 (last accessed on
December 12, 2013).
3The

Constitutional Amendment Proposal 37 is a legal device that cancels the power of criminal prosecutors, giving exclusivity to federal and civil police of the states and federal district. PEC 33 would allow the
National Congress (formed by the Chamber of Deputies and Senate) to have greater decision-making
power than the Supreme Court. After the protests, the proposals were overturned by the Chamber of
Deputies. For a discussion of them, see the article by Luis Nassif available at http://www.advivo.com.br/
blog/luisnassif/uma-analise-sobre-os-textos-das-pecs-33-e-37 (last accessed on July 20, 2013).
4I

highlight here the texts produced by Viana (2013) and the Humanitas Institute Unisinos (IHU 2013) as
part of this process of systematization and reflection on the events of that period.
5The documentary No Vandalism! shows the front line of the demonstrations in an attempt to find
out the motivations of the groups facing the police. Accessed from https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=RYpGJZFmIc8 on June 30, 2013.
6Besides

the MPL, I would like to highlight another movement, Block of Fights by Public Transportation,
for the transformation of public transport which has much popular support in the city of Porto Alegre and
also strengthened after June 2013. Accessed from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bloco-de-Lutapelo-Transporte-Pblico/488875294508389 on April 20, 2014.
7Suppress

or kill the enemy in combat was considered brave for the police, even though the enemy was
customarily the population living in favelas. In these places, the deaths often had execution characteristics
(Lemgruber 2001:27) and were recorded by police officers in their reports as autos for resistance, a term
used to register cases of civilians killed allegedly resisting arrest. Even with strong evidence, execution
cases were rarely investigated carefully, and the certainty of impunity guaranteed that further deaths occurred. The police that cracked down on citizens in the streets in June 2013 were the same officers who
acted in the favelas; in other words, the violent conduct and the sense of impunity was the same.
8Globo

newscast, RJTV 1st edition, June 18, 2013. Accessed from http://globotv.globo.com/rede-globo/
rjtv-1a-edicao/t/edicoes/v/especialista-em-seguranca-publica-comenta-acao-de-policiais-durantemanifestacao/2640971/ on June 19, 2013.
9Traffickers

are responsible for retail sales of illicit drugs in the favelas. In the information produced by the
media, they appear as the sole agents responsible for the spread of drugs in cities, and consequently, the
spread of violence and crime. The police, supported by this representation, understand that everyone in
the favela has links with drug traffickers and therefore are all bandits. So it is common that many deaths
of young blacks occur in these communities because the police and the media in general associate them
with traffickers. This mistaken association, and the binary opposition between the police and the favela
dweller, was responsible for the criminalization of these residents. The installation of the UPP in these territories was intended to pacify them and remove them from the traffickers command. It is also important
to say that traffickers are a group that has its own hierarchy and relationship with the space of the favela,
which is different from that of the residents. Favela dwellers have different social trajectories and this
influences and determines where they live within the community and their migrations within and between
slums. To learn more about the complexity of the relationship between police, drug dealers, territories, and
youth in Brazil, see Bill and Athayde (2005) and Bill, Soares, and Athayde (2006).
10The

police raids in the favelas were constant and violent. Protesters encountered police violence and its
cruelty from the same police officers. What was different, however, was that in the streets of the city, the
police used tear gas, tasers, and rubber ball guns. In the favela, the police carried 7.62 caliber FAL rifles.
11The

images showed muscular men or older men with visible bellies. They had hair cut very short, were
bald, or had shaved heads. They usually wore jeans and plain shirts. The phenotype of the members of
Black Bloc was different. The boys were skinny, with some volume of hair, wore tight jeans or pants and
shirts with band names or phrases written on them. Over time, the alternative media began to photograph
these older men and, through social networks, were identifying them as members of the special police
PMERJ, known as P2. After this wave of identifications, the members of P2 were more careful and
took to wearing similar clothing to the Black Bloc, and sending younger or skinnier members to the streets.
For the archive for the streaming video of alternative media that assisted in the identification of P2, see
the Olho da Rua twitcasting available at http://twitcasting.tv/olhodarua1/show/; the collective Catarse

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archives available at http://coletivocatarse.com.br/home/category/videos/page/2; and the Midia Ninja

twitcasting available at http://twitcasting.tv/midianinja_rj (last accessed on November 14, 2013.
12The

Black Bloc is an online community that developed tactical actions in the demonstrations. The
Facebook profile of this group in Brazil was made in 2012, but it was during the demonstrations in June
2013 that the group was able to put their directives into action more frequently. According to the group,
the term Black Bloc was used for the first time in West Germany during the 1980s by the police to identify
some political groups who called themselves Autonomous or Autonomists and fought against police
repression during the occupation. By the 2000s, the group started to be identified as anticapitalist and
drew their tactics from an anarchist politic ideology. It was very common for Black Bloc members to serve
as security guards for the protesters during the demonstrations in Brazil. Accessed from https://www.
facebook.com/BlackBlocBR on June 20, 2013.
13I

wish to point out the work of the Network of Communities and the social movement Against Violence,
composed of mothers whose children were victims of executions carried out by police officers. I also want
to highlight the work of the NGO Global Justice, which produces reports (Lyra et al. 2004) with qualitative
and quantitative data that describes the modus operandi of police violence.
14A

space for debates and resistance against the reforms in the bay area of Rio de Janeiro, which is going
through an extensive process of transformation due to the joint urban operation called Porto Maravilha
(Wonder Bay). Part of my Ph.D. research is being done with this group, to which I am currently a contributor.
15The

removal of houses was a common practice performed by the Brazilian government, particularly
on the grounds that the removed families would live in a better place. The justification of the removals
was that the dwellers were in a risk area and were in the way of road works considered of public interest.
Despite these justifications, the removal was usually performed to remove the poor from urban centers.
Social movements estimate that the World Cup and the Summer Olympics Game intensified an increase
in violent evictions and removals in Brazilian cities.
16I

emphasize the dossier produced by the NGO Conectas to denounce the institutional violence of the
Brazilian stateincluding the criminalization of social movements in June and July 2013for OAS. 14
people were killed in Rio de Janeiro; 12 people were executed by police action in Favela da Mar, in reaction to the death of an officer of BOPE; one death was caused by tear-gas inhalation; and the death of
one elderly man who was scared of the police repression, and died being run over by a bus. See http://
www.conectas.org/arquivos/editor/files/Dossi%20Verso%20FINAL%20rev%20final%20-%2028_03f.
pdf (last accessed June 2014).
17A video from photographer Fernando Rabelo shows a young group trying to attack an armored car used

by the military police in Rio known as Caveiro. This vehicle is one of the greatest symbols of police
repression in Rio de Janeiro. The scene happened at the end of the demonstration of June 20 in Cinelndia
in central Rio de Janeiro. In the video, a large amount of tear gas can be seen on site. Accessed from
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=541755722548767 on June 21, 2013.
18For

information on the last military intervention before the UPP installation in Rio de Janeiro, see http://
www.facebook.com/marevive (last accessed April 20, 2014).
19The

slogan will not have World Cup also arose in response to police repression of the demonstrations
in June and July. In January 2014, this slogan gathered many demonstrations that were built based around
the feeling that the expenses of the Cup had been excessive and that the works made for its implementation generated many costs for the population, for example, the removals.
20The

discussions occurred in online communities created after the protests, in meetings held in front of
the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences (IFCS/UFRJ) and elsewhere, and in mutual support forums
that were consolidated after the demonstrations and that brought together researchers, favela dwellers,
members of NGOs, and activists.

References:
Adorno, Srgio and Camila Dias. 2014. Monoplio estatal da violncia. In Renato Srgio de Lima, Luiz
Ratton Jos, and Rodrigo Ghiringhelli Azevedo, eds. Crime, polcia e justia no Brasil, 187-197. So
Paulo: Contexto.
Bill, M.V. and Celso Athayde. 2005. Hawk: Boys Trafficking. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva.
Bill, M.V., Luiz Eduardo Soares, and Celso Athayde. 2006. Cabea de Porco. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva.
Cardoso, Ruth Correa Leite. 1987. Movimentos sociais na amrica latina. Revista Brasileira de Cincias
Sociais 3:27-37.

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Its Not Easy, I Ask for Public Mobility and the Government Sends Skull Against Me:
An Intimate Account of the Political Protests in Rio de Janeiro (June & July, 2013)

Favret-Saada, Jeanne. 2005. Ser afetado. In Cadernos da Camporevista dos alunos de ps-graduao em antropologia social da USP, 155-163. So Paulo: USP.
IHU. 2013. Significados, inflexes e perspectivas do Outono Brasileiro. IHU, July 2. Accessed from http://
www.ihu.unisinos.br/noticias/521558-conjuntura-da-semana-junho-2013-significados-inflexoes-eperspectivas-do-outono-brasileiro on July 15, 2013.
Lemgruber, Julita. 2001. Controle da criminalidade: mitos e fatos. Revista Think Tank. So Paulo:
Instituto Liberal.
Lyra, Diogo Azevedo, Marcelo Freixo, Marie-Eve Sylvestre, and Renata Vernica Crtes de Lira, eds.
2004. Relatrio RIO: violncia policial e insegurana pblica. Lincoln Ellis, trans. Rio de Janeiro:
Justia Global.
Viana, Silvia. 2013. Tcnicas para a fabricao de um novo engodo, quando o antigo pifa. Le Monde
Diplomatique Brasil, June 18. Accessed from http://www.diplomatique.org.br/acervo.php?id=3027&tipo=acervo on June 22, 2013.

F o r e i g n L a n g u a g e Tr a n s l a t i o n s :
Its Not Easy, I Ask for Public Mobility and the Government Sends Skull Against Me: An Intimate
Account of the Political Protests in Rio de Janeiro (June & July, 2013)
No Fcil, Eu Peo Mobilidade Pblica e o Governo Manda o Caveiro Contra Mim: Um Relato
ntimo dos Protestos Polticos no Rio de Janeiro (Junho & Julho, 2013)
:
2013

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2013 .)

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