Recolonial Militiarchy / Miliciarquia Recolonial: The Political Evolution of Organized Crime

Conceiving militias as the evolution of death squads created in the late 1960s, the chapter presents their evolution as a political structure based on their accumulated criminal capital and their relationship with the police apparatus. The concept of recolonial militiarchy proposed here represents a specific reading of the sociohistorical spatial formation of Brazil. The coexistence of distinct forms of violence and exploitation is notably geared toward Black Brazilians and slum dwellers. Initiated during the colonial period, this violence continued to be practiced by current militias to the advance of today’s extreme right. This chapter traces the historical origins of militias (paramilitary vigilante protection and extraction operations), which became the dominant governing institution in Rio de Janeiro.