'Terreiros' Under Attack? Criminal Governance in the Name of God and Armed Dominion Disputes over Control in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

In this article we analyze acts of violence inflicted by armed groups on members of Afro-Brazilian religions in the Metropolitan Area of Rio de Janeiro. Based on a media content survey, it was found that in less than 15 years these conflicts ceased to derive from proximity relations and evolved to confrontations over armed hegemony of popular spaces, controlled by drug traffickers and/or militia, who present themselves as members of Pentecostal churches. The criminal governance operated by "traficrentes" and "milicrentes" combines commercial, theological, and doctrinal imperatives with a political project of nation that directly impacts peoples' ways of life, especially the followers of Afro-Brazilian religions.