Turmoil in São Paulo (Brazil)

I've been really scared and appalled at the "dystopian"* scenario that has been unfolding in São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, where I lived for 12 years. There was a massive and coordinated rebellion of prison inmates in the whole state of São Paulo that simply paralyzed the city on Monday afternoon/evening. Public transportation buses were set on fire, policemen were killed and, in turn, many innocent people were gunned down by police just by looking suspicious. These events prompted most of the commercial establishments to close their doors and dismiss their employees early on Monday and people deserted the streets at night, fearing attacks from the rebellious criminals. The situation hasn't been stabilized yet.

Violence and criminality in Brazil are getting completely out of control, particularly because of the huge and unnaceptable social marginalization of millions of people. The majority of Brazil's population is undescribably poor and a tiny minority holds over 90% of the country's wealth. To make matters worse, like one friend emailed us yesterday, in Brazil the police, the military, and the government have a hard time to exert and maintain their authority. One of the legacy of years of political repression caused by the military dictatorship (1964-74/84) is a confusion between authority and authoritarism; therefore, the police and military are afraid of being accused of being arbitrarily cruel to criminals and sometimes back off when attacked by them.

These criminals are meticulously organized, with pre-paid cell phones to communicate to each other (even inside prisons) and regional organizations such as the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital - First Command of the Capital [city of São Paulo]) - the group that organized this week's attack as a protest to the transfer of high profile criminals to high security prisons in the state's interior - and the Comando Vermelho (Red Command), a similar organization in Rio de Janeiro. If you want to check it out, this is how CNN reported these events.

* I have taught a course of "Dystopian Fiction" (called Brave New World) a few times. Some novels that describe a fictional dystopian scenario are: Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's 1984, Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower (and sequel), Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, and many many others.