Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • The Guardian

    'Lesser evil': how Brazil's militias wield terror to seize power from gangs

    Paramilitary groups implicated in the killing of Rio’s city councillor Marielle Franco have taken control of swaths of areas by imposing ‘violence, death and summary execution’
    by Dom Phillips in Seropédica Jul 12, 2018 4 minutes
    A favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Militias, which often includes former and serving police officers and firefighters, have taken control of swaths of Rio’s western suburbs. Photograph: Silvia Izquierdo/AP

    The gunmen wore black military fatigues and ninja masks when they arrived in Seropédica, a nondescript town of 84,000 near Rio de Janeiro, and began systematically driving out the drug gangsters.

    Those who refused to leave were killed.

    “There were three weeks of deaths,” said one resident – who like many locals was still unwilling to be named three years later. “Many people know. They just don’t open their mouths.”

    Known as “militias”, paramilitary groups – which often include former and serving police officers and firefighters – have quietly taken control of swathes of Rio’s western suburbs since they emerged in the early 2000s.

    As they did in Seropédica, they commonly arrive in a neighbourhood claiming they will drive out criminals and dealers – but soon start their

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from The Guardian

    The Guardian3 min readWorld
    Historians Come Together To Wrest Ukraine’s Past Out Of Russia’s Shadow
    The opening salvo in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year was not a rocket or a missile. Rather, it was an essay. Vladimir Putin’s On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, published in summer 2021, ranged over 1,00
    The Guardian4 min read
    ‘Almost Like Election Night’: Behind The Scenes Of Spotify Wrapped
    There’s a flurry of activities inside Spotify’s New York City’s offices in the Financial District. “It’s almost like election night,” Louisa Ferguson, Spotify’s global head of marketing experience says, referring to a bustling newsroom. At the same t
    The Guardian4 min read
    Whether In Song Or In Silence, Shane MacGowan Exuded The Very Essence Of Life
    Shane MacGowan and I sat in near silence for two hours last year. We were at his home, just outside Dublin. I’d been warned by his wife, the writer Victoria Mary Clarke, that he was depressed and anxious, not really in the mood to talk. But nothing c

    Related Books & Audiobooks