THE WAR ON DRUGS AS A SECURITY PRACTICE IN BRAZIL FROM A DECOLONIAL PERSPECTIVE: AN ANALYSIS OF RIO DE JANEIRO (1990-2010).

• Grant number: 24/00277-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2024
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Paulo José dos Reis Pereira
• Grantee: Paula de Faria Donegá
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Sociais. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The War on Drugs policy as a securitarian practice in Brazil functions as a bureaucratic-repressive instrument, disproportionately developed in an attempt to combat drug trafficking and deal with individuals involved in situations of marginalization. Incorporated in Brazil during the 1990s, the policies and guidelines underlying the War on Drugs reinforce inequalities while perpetuating and strengthening the marginalization of certain social groups. Drawing from works, interviews, and official documents produced on the topic of drugs in the international and national agenda of Brazil, and encompassing theorists with their enunciation located in the Global South, we will examine the implementation of the War on Drugs policy in Brazil, particularly in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, from the years 1990 to 2010. This will address the practical consequences of this set of policies, such as the implementation of the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) in the communities of the city of Rio de Janeiro. To do this, a decolonial perspective will be adopted, enabling a critical analysis of the theme as it challenges the set of anti-drug policies as a neocolonial mechanism manifested through an American epistemological model that seeks to control bodies and territories, known as the coloniality of power.