Brazil’s judges living in fear of organized crime violence

On February 12, Brazilian journalist Léo Veras was assassinated by masked hitmen at his home in the Paraguayan border town of Pedro Juan Caballero. Mr. Veras—who ran a news website covering stories about the drug trade—became the tenth journalist assassinated in the Brazil-Paraguay border region since 1991. While the case raised questions about press freedoms in South America, it also shed light on a wider issue: the threat posed by organized crime to journalists, activists, and judges.

According to the National Justice Council (CNJ)—a body that acts as a watchdog for the Brazilian judicial system—at least 110 judges are currently under threat of violence from criminal organizations, and most of these individuals have a bounty on their heads.

Many of these threatened judges live in conditions that could essentially be described as captivity, being unable to come and go as they please and only leaving the relative safety of their homes when flanked by armed men. That is the reality of former federal judge Odilon de Oliveira, who has lived under police protection since 1998 when drug gangs made an attempt on his life.

Since then, the Federal Police has discovered a dozen plots to assassinate Mr. Oliveira, from crude plans to break into his home to sophisticated poisoning attempts.

For over 30 years, Mr. Oliveira served as a...