Complexo de Israel: Um nome para muitas representações da violência

Abstract

This work analyzed the emergence of the Israel Complex, a name that emerged in 2020 to designate a region in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro made up of the neighborhoods and favelas of Vigário Geral, Parada de Lucas, Cidade Alta, Pica-pau and Cinco Bocas, occupied by evangelical drug traffickers from the Pure Third Command, faction who intimidate followers of Afro-Brazilian religions. From a genealogical perspective, with the aim of investigating the relationship between religion, the new modalities of parastatal armed domination and representations of violence, the research set out to observe where religions and violence meet and transform throughout history. Next, the dissertation analyzed media discourses through the lens of semiolinguistics, with the aim of examining the factors that led to the emergence of the name Israel Complex and the representations (re)produced from it. Finally, the work looked at the effects of the phenomenon on the incidence of violent crime and the intensification of precariousness in the different places that make up the territory. As a result, the research argued that the name emerged as a toponym through a discursive consensus between the media, state security agents and the faction. The work concluded that the advent and spread of the name Israel Complex came about, among other things, from an updating of the essentialist representations of religiosity that is practiced in territories inhabited by subjected bodies, and which were once used to portray traffickers linked to religions of African origin in past decades. Despite the fact that official statistics show no significant change in violent lethality, the interviews with residents set out to demonstrate that the consolidation of the faction's occupation and the subsequent appearance of the so-called toponym produced an intensification of precariousness, stigmatization and surveillance and, consequently, fear, low expectations and silencing. The work also showed that the supposed new name of the place was not appropriated by the residents, especially by those who practiced African religions, who proved to be the most vulnerable, subject to the destruction of their places of worship and expulsion from their own homes.