Van Plan of the Militia Man | Taxation Sans Representation

The battle flag of the Rio das Pedras militia — the Peacemakers

After perusing proposed amendments to the Brazilian Penal Code to typify the crime of “militia membership.” let us return to a recent example of what we are talking about.

Source: G1

June 11, 2013 — Fearing the power of the  militias, directors of the van cooperative Rio da Prata, which operates in the Western Zone of Rio, have requested audiences with the state public safety secretary, Beltrame; the mayor, Eduardo Paes; and state deputy Marcelo Freixo, who presides over the human rights commission of ALERJ.

ALERJ: The state legislative assembly of Rio de Janeiro. Freixo, of the PSOL, did an admirable  job chairing a state commission on militia. And he remains alive.

Cooperative participants will pay a higher price for security while working in the region. The request was made after the assassination of Rodrigo César Conceição, killed with four shots at point-blank range because he would not accept paying a bribe to a group of militiamen. Rodrigo was buried on June 10 at the Jardim da Saudade cemetery, in Sulacap.

The driver was killed on Saturday night in a bar near the final stop on his line, in Cosmos. Other motorists, who said they were fearful of identifying themselves, say he was buying a snack when four armed men entered and shot into the air to drive away the persons present. Next, they shot the driver in the head. Now lying on the floor of the bar, he was shot three more times. The suspects fled on foot.

According to the president of the Rio Prata coop, César Moraes Gouveia, Rodrigo was killed for refusing to submit to the militia’s attempt to charge him R$150 a day to drive the Cosmos-Cascadura line.

In a follow-up, G1 identified the coopted van lines as “Cosmos x Cascadura, Sepetiba x Marechal Hermes, Santa Cruz x Coelho Neto and Nova Sepetiba x Coelho Neto.”

“He died because he represented resistance. He had been hassled since October. Last week, I told him myself to get out of Cosmos because of the threats.  He even talked it over with the family. But we cannot change our lives around just like that.  He was a resident of our neighborhood,” said Gouveia, who recalls that the driver left behind a widow and four young children.

The Cooperativa Rio da Prata, says its president, is one of the biggest in the city, with 700 vans and 2,000 employees.  It operates mainly  in the Western Zone.

“We have complained to the state prosecutors about the threats. The police never did a thing about it. The militia members themselves say that everything from Campo Grande to Sepetiba is their turf. The result of our struggle to work honestly is this: If you refuse to pay them, they kill you. They have driven off a lot of drivers from other van lines as well, and nothing was done. We are  not at war with the militia because we lack the weapons, so we use our civil rights,” said the coop president.

Other motorists at the coop say that militiamen arrive armed and wearing ski masks, then announce that to drive a specific line, the driver must leave the coop and work for them. At first, they charge an administrative fee at least R$ 100 lower, but they offer no services, such as medical care, legal  advice, or mechanic service, which Rio da Prata does provide. Later, the militias upped the weekly bribe from R$100 to $R400, calling it an administrative tax.

Starting June 11, representatives of the coop will try to get a meeting with the mayor, Eduardo Paes, public safety secretary Beltrame, and state deputy Freixo. They want more seccure working conditions in the Western Zone.

What Is A (Brazilian) Militia?

“Batman’s days are over. Chico Bullet is the man now” — Police officer, militia chieftain and city council member simultaneously

Colombians are not the only Southern Hemispherians to suffer the ignominy of “parapolitics” — the corrosion of social and political life by the criminal and paramilitary groups who keep the Cartagena-Miami  marching powder pipeline pumping

What is distinctive about Brazilian militia groups — aside from the ongoingly timid coverage  of the issue that followed the kidnapping and torture of a journalistic team from O Dia — is that they might very well be waiting behind you for a cappuccino on the calçadão. 

They exude entrepreneurialism, profiting handsomely from every black market from van service to Internet connection. Many are connected in high places.  Consider the case of a top aide to the chief of the state judicial police , Félix Tostes, gunned down Sopranos style in July 2007:

• In Memoriam, Inspector Tostes

A general overview of the zeitgeist of that fascinating year:

• Rio: Carnage and Carnaval

Brazilian legislators are currently reviewing the Penal Code, and it is interesting to observe the more central role they assigned to “militia” crimes among the gamut of “organized” crimes, which is being redacted.

Source: Âmbito Jurídico

This article seeks to examine, simply and objectively, the proposals for defining the crime of participation in a militia in the New Penal Code, by means of a brief analysis of … Article 256 (which defines a criminal organization), Article 256, Paragraph 2 (which defines a militia) and article 255 (which defines a criminal conspiracy.)

The proposed amendment to the Penal Code establishes a rule for defining a criminal organization, as follows:

Criminal Organization

Art. 256. Three or more persons organize themselves, in a stable and permanent manner, for the specific purpose of committing crimes whose maximum penalty is greater than or equal to four years, making use of an organizational structure with a division of labor and a definite hierarchy and undertaken to obtain undue advantage of some kind.

Penalty – 3 to 1o years in prison, without prejudice to sentences related to crimes committed by the organization as a whole.

Paragraph 1.  The sentence increased by 50% if the criminal organization is armed, if one or more of its members are civil servants, or if the crimes committed by the group are transnational in nature.

CSN and CSA | Men of Steel Seek Port in Storm

Source: Brasil Econômico.

The imminent sale of the controling bloc of shares in Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico (CSA) will likely  place  Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) and  Vale on opposite sides once again. Interested in using CSA’s port to ship its production, Benjamin Steinbruch and company will have to convince its mining and steel-making partner, which has veto power over the business, to permit a competitor to access a modern logistics system, located near principal mining sources and installations in the Southeast that will enable it to attract very large ships.

The port is considered by CSN to be a strategic asset that has not succeeded in launching its principal logistics project in the region: the Lago da Pedra private port, planned in the last decade and currently not part of the steelmakers’s plans.

With Lago da Pedra, the company sought to extend its capacity for shipping steel products and its growing production of iron ore, an operation that has grown in importance, to the extent that it surpassed earnings from steel last year.

Sources say  that CSN and German company ThyssenKrupp are close to a deal that would transfer Steel Americas, whch controls CSA and a rolling mill in the U.S.

Outside Agitators or Militia? | Rio

From Black Block Brasil Facebook Page, 2,500 liked

Item: G1 |  Cabral attributes Rio vandalism to international groups — a measure not taken, however, until July 22.

Rio de Janeiro governor  Sérgio Cabral yesterday explained the difficulty encountered by state police in combating acts of vandalism during protests in the city, charging that the violence is being provoke by international groups.

Cabral held a press conference today — July 10 — at the governor’s palace in Laranjeiras, in the Southern Zone, to discuss the creation of a special commission of acts of violence during public demonstrations. The commission will be created by decree on Monday, July 22.

“These popular manifestations differ from others in that they confront police. It used to be that we had no social networks. We know now that international organizations stimulate vandalism using these networks.” Cabral said the creation of a commission is designed to unify and expedite investigations of vandals and provocateurs, facilitating the work of police and the courts.