On 2 October Brazil’s justice & public security minister, Flávio Dino, unveiled the Programa Nacional de Enfrentamento às Organizações Criminosas (Enfoc), an initiative worth R$900m (US$177.7m) in additional funding for law enforcement authorities to investigate and combat the activities of drug-trafficking organisations (DTOs).
Analysis:
The federal government led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to address public security concerns, such as a wave of gang violence in the north-east in March and deadly police operations in the south-east in August. On 21 July President Lula launched a series of public security initiatives, known as the ‘Programa de Ação na Segurança’ (PAS), and the Enfoc programme launched yesterday marks the government’s continued efforts to bolster the PAS. At the Enfoc launch event, Dino also announced specific measures for the south-eastern state of Rio de Janeiro and north-eastern state of Bahia, where violent police raids have sparked concerns about gang crime and police brutality in recent months.
- Yesterday, Dino authorised the deployment of the Força Nacional de Segurança Pública to Rio de Janeiro, a combined force of federal security units to support the state’s police forces in their operations against DTOs. The Força Nacional will provide 300 agents and 50 vehicles, while the federal highway police (PRF) will provide 270 personnel, 22 armoured cars, and a helicopter.
- The Bahian police will receive an additional R$23m in funding for Operation ‘Paz’, an anti-gang operation launched at the start of September across northern and north-eastern states coordinated by the justice & public security ministry.
- According to reports from the news website G1, the Bahian police’s raids have resulted in at least 59 killings from 1-27 September; with 56 of the fatalities reportedly of individuals suspected of having ties to DTOs.
- According to the 2022 crime statistics released by the public security think tank Forum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública in July, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro saw the country’s highest murder rates last year, registering 6,659 and 4,485 intentional violent killings, respectively.
Looking Ahead: The Enfoc programme will be implemented until 2026. Over the next 60 days the public security ministry will aim to confirm more concrete deadlines and action plans for the relevant authorities to receive funding, such as the federal police (PF) and the national secretariats on drug policy (Senad) and on prison policy (Senappen).
