Suchergebnisse

During carnival 2018, Brazilian mass media reported about a dramatic increase of crime and violence in Rio de Janeiro. Former President Michel Temer thereupon signed a decree that announced a federal intervention into Rio de Janeiro´s competence for public security. Being an historic precedent since Brazil´s return to democracy, the decree subordinated this competence under the command of a general. The present analysis shows that the constitutionality of this extraordinary measure was not properly analyzed by the organs responsible for its control and that this failure can be attributed to media pressure from which the President and his supporters aptly knew to take advantage of. The federal intervention is therefore both an example for modern power politics under the conditions of a media democracy and another evidence for the country´s institutional and political crisis, which has aggravated since former President Dilma Rousseff´s ouster through a dubious impeachment process.

AbstractIn Rio de Janeiro so-called drug factions hold control over most of the shanty towns. The State has reacted by 'militarising' its police operations. The result is a humanitarian tragedy that has already cost the lives of thousands of Brazilian citizens. Many of those affected by the violence are of the opinion that the city has become the battlefield of a 'war'. This article addresses the issue of whether the legal concept of armed conflict could and should be applied to such situations.