Under intervention, Rio relives problems of 200 years ago

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s picture-perfect city, faced rampant crime rates, problems caused by unplanned urban expansion, and latent social tensions.  The clueless government couldn’t manage the crisis, opting instead to rely on military forces to act as law enforcement in peripheral neighborhoods. Intervention troops were accused of brutality and of attempting against Brazil’s legislation.

While the previous paragraph could very well describe recent events in Rio de Janeiro, it is actually about Rio in 1808.

In that year, the Portuguese Court fled a French invasion and settled in Rio. The small city suddenly turned into the capital of the Portuguese Crown. The city’s population was growing fast, due to an immigration boom that saw a plethora of Portuguese and other European arrivals, but didn’t cope well with the rapid expansion. It lacked in space, homes, and infrastructure; consequently, the immigration boom aggravated existing social tensions.

Many residents felt that crime was out of control. “In this city and its suburbs, we have been greatly insulted by thieves,” Luiz Joaquim dos Santos Marrocos, a royal archivist based in Rio, wrote in a letter to his father in Lisbon. “In five days, 22 murders were reported in a small circuit, and one night in front of my door a thief killed two people and seriously wounded a third.”

Historical accounts of the time showed that crime had shot up in Rio, with increases in thefts, robberies, murders, and gangs armed with knives and daggers. Ships in the Guanabara Bay’s harbors were targeted by passing pirates, and prostitution and gambling, both illegal at the time, were witnessed in broad daylight.

Only São Paulo could boast similar levels of population growth, but in Rio the demographics had another element: at least half of the city’s population consisted...