Abstract
Since at least 2005, drug traffickers in the cities and favelas of the state of Rio de Janeiro have been carrying out systematic and violent assaults on Afro-Brazilian religious communities. Motivated by their conversion to sects of Evangelical Christianity that regard Afro-Brazilian religions as devil worship, the traffickers have forcibly expelled devotees of these faiths from their homes and temples, destroyed shrines and places of worship, and threatened to kill priests if they continue to practice their religion. Scholars have often described this religious landscape as a “conflict” and a “spiritual war.” However, I argue that Evangelized drug traffickers and Afro-Brazilian religions are not engaged in a two-sided struggle; rather, the former is unilaterally committing gross violations of the latter’s human rights, which contravene international norms prohibiting crimes against humanity and genocide.
Highlights
In mid-August 2019, police in the state of Rio de Janeiro announced that they had arrested eight drug traffickers who had been attacking devotees of Afro-Brazilian religions (i.e., Candomblé and Umbanda) and their places of worship (“Polícia prende ‘Bonde de Jesus’” 2019).The traffickers were part of a group known as “Bonde de Jesus,” or “Jesus Tram,” which they founded to organize and coordinate their efforts to use threats and property destruction to push Afro-Brazilian religions out of the communities that they control
Over the few years, reports surfaced in other parts of Rio de Janeiro, suggesting that the Evangelization of drug traffickers had spread from Ilha do Governador back to mainland areas of the state
The question of how one should describe the Evangelized trafficker violence against Afro-Brazilian religions is more than a mere issue of semantics
Summary
In mid-August 2019, police in the state of Rio de Janeiro announced that they had arrested eight drug traffickers who had been attacking devotees of Afro-Brazilian religions (i.e., Candomblé and Umbanda) and their places of worship (terreiros) (“Polícia prende ‘Bonde de Jesus’” 2019). I begin with a delimitation of the problem, describing the earliest reports of Evangelized traffickers committing acts of intolerance against Afro-Brazilian religious communities in the mid-2000s and outlining the most recent series of attacks, which took place in four cities in the state of Rio de Janeiro from 2017 to 2019. Over the few years, reports surfaced in other parts of Rio de Janeiro, suggesting that the Evangelization of drug traffickers had spread from Ilha do Governador back to mainland areas of the state In the latter half of the 2000s, Evangelized traffickers banned white clothes (a symbol of Afro-Brazilian religions, worn every Friday as well as to religious ceremonies) in the community of.
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