Brazilian investigative reporter Cecília Olliveira has always wondered how someone joins militias and what makes a public security agent change sides.
In Brazil, militias are armed groups, generally made up of agents or former agents of the State, such as police officers, firefighters and prison guards. They fill power vacuums left by the State and operate as criminal organizations in Rio de Janeiro.
Olliveira, co-founder of Intercept Brasil and founder of Instituto Fogo Cruzado (or the Cross-fire Institute, the largest open database on armed violence in Latin America), immersed herself in the subject, which ended up becoming her first book, "Como nascer um miliciano" (How a militiaman is born). Set for release June 16, the book analyzes the growth of militias through the story of a former policeman, identified as a militia leader, who died in a confrontation with police.
Book cover of “Como Nasce um Miliciano” by Cecília Olliveira. (Photo: Disclosure)
Carlos Eduardo Benevides Gomes, aka Corporal Bené, was one of 12 men killed during a 2020 police operation in the municipality of Itaguaí, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Olliveira covered the incident for Intercept Brasil and, in an 8-minute video, explained “how a militiaman is born.” Afterward, a publisher proposed that she expand in the form of a book.
The investigative work explains how militias are expanding throughout Brazil and moving millions of Reais through illegal housing developments, control of services and systematic extortion. Olliveira reports they’re even entering politics, electing political representatives.
"The most surprising thing was seeing how the militias stopped being local armed groups to become multifaceted criminal conglomerates, operating in a franchise system," Olliveira told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR).
Areas controlled by militias in Rio de Janeiro grew 387% in 16 years, according to the book. Further, it says that 10% of the entire metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro is under the control of these paramilitary groups, which dominate not only favelas, but also parts of other areas of the city and infiltrate public services and private concessions.
Olliveira identifies four main factors that made this expansion possible: omission — or collaboration, in her words — of the State, connivance and corruption of public agents, the absence of a security policy that focuses on these groups and a certain social legitimacy.
“The militias sell themselves as ‘protectors of the community,’ and for a long time they were treated as the ‘lesser evil’ in relation to drug trafficking,” Olliveira said. “Meanwhile, politicians allied themselves with these groups — many of which emerged from the ranks of the police — and guaranteed institutional protection. In addition, the illegal real estate boom and the dominance of services such as internet, gas and transportation served as constant sources of profit, reinvested in this criminal enterprise. It is a structured business, with management and clientelism. The lack of effective public policies and real political will only opened more space for their growth.”
Covering urban violence in Rio de Janeiro is a high-risk activity, but investigating militias brings another level of danger for journalists. An emblematic case is that of a reporting team from newspaper “O Dia”, which in 2008 was tortured for hours after being discovered by militiamen while reporting undercover in a Rio favela. Olliveira did not experience anything like this while researching the book, but she said that exposure is the biggest risk of investigating paramilitary groups.
"Writing about militias is entering a territory where violence is silent, very discreet, but extremely present," Olliveira said. "In the places I went, I didn't see weapons, obviously. But you knew they were there. The place has a different silence, sometimes very empty, notices on the walls."
She said the militiamen's modus operandi is worse than the approach of drug traffickers, for example, precisely because of this apparently more discreet component.
“You don’t get direct messages like in drug trafficking, which tends to be more direct — it’s worse, because often you don’t even know you’re being watched,” she added. “They have access to government databases, and can even monitor your bank transactions, depending on the access they have. The biggest risk was interfering in areas that involve the interests of politicians, security agents and businesspeople. It’s an organized crime with a certain social legitimacy and political and economic protection, and that makes everything more dangerous.”
Another challenge faced by Olliveira was accessing official documents that she said were made confidential when she was researching the book. She resorted to three approaches, she said: she built a network of internal sources; cross-referenced open databases, such as those of Fogo Cruzado and the Superior Electoral Court; and she worked with experienced researchers.
“After I requested some specific documents [from the Rio Civil Police] they were placed under seal for five years, which clearly shows the objective of hiding information and limiting the work of the press,” she said. “It took persistence, creativity and, above all, care with the security of sources because exposing someone in this context can be fatal.”
Journalist Flávia Oliveira, a commentator for GloboNews and a columnist for newspaper O Globo, said Olliveira's book represents an important journalistic contribution to the discussion on public security and the dominance of militias in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. She said the topic is widely debated in academia, with very important contributions, but journalism ensures that information reaches society in a broader way.
“Cecília’s book adds to another front, which is journalistic or literary-journalistic production on the public security crisis,” Flávia Oliveira told LJR. “All well-done, well-researched, in-depth research is very welcome. And, in this sense, Cecília’s book is yet another unequivocal contribution. Investigative journalism does indeed play an absolutely fundamental role and is very interesting because the mastery of language that journalists have makes the stories more palatable, easier for the reader and population at large to understand.”
Flávia Oliveira also emphasized the importance of the work of women journalists in covering public safety, a field heavily concentrated in the hands of men, and the different approach that women journalists bring to investigations about organized crime. In the case of Olliveira's book, she said the reporter brought unique elements of the female approach.
“She talks about family history, about children, about women, some points that I think are typical of a female perspective on this topic,” Flávia Oliveira said. “And I think perhaps the fact that a woman writer is starting to stand out can also attract more women to this discussion, which is one of the most important for any citizen today. It opens up space for a universe of women readers who may be less familiar with this niche due to the predominance of men.”
Luiz Eduardo Soares, who wrote the blurb for the book and is an anthropologist specializing in public security, said crime, violence and militias are generally seen as side issues – problems for specialists and minor human dramas. He said the topics only rise to the national agenda when exceptionally tragic events occur.
“In these cases, the news appears in the media’s prime spaces for a short time and then returns to the secondary spaces, devoted to niche topics,” Soares told LJR. “Cecilia’s book helps to demonstrate that the issues we are dealing with must occupy the center of the public agenda, because they concern democracy and the democratic rule of law. Militias are an urgent and decisive political issue. This is the author’s main message to Brazilian society.”
With almost 20 years of experience, Olliveira's main advice for colleagues who want to cover organized crime is to prepare themselves technically, emotionally and legally. According to the journalist, it is essential to study the topic in depth from a legal, sociological, anthropological and historical point of view; to know the geography of places; and to establish a network of trust with colleagues and sources. She also emphasizes that risk should never be underestimated, and says that reporters should never work alone.
“Tell people you trust where you are going and what you are doing, with whom,” the reporter said. “It is also important to understand that organized crime in Brazil is not only in the outskirts: it is in the city councils, in the notary offices, in the shell companies. Investigating this requires patience, rigor and courage. But it is worth it. Because shedding light on what they want to hide is, after all, the essence of our work.”
