Abstract

The state government of Rio de Janeiro has embarked on an ambitious policy of favela pacification in an attempt to gain control of territories long controlled by drug gangs. While I recognize the potential as well as the flaws of the Police Pacification Unit (UPP) program in terms of providing security for a city with a history of crime and violence, I argue that the UPP policy is an integral part of Rio’s entrepreneurial city strategy centered around the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. I see this as a case of what David Harvey calls accumulation by dispossession, where the state engineers the military conquest and control of territories, and the capture of assets by force, to create outlets for the expansion of private capital. Through a series of interviews with residents of “pacified” or soon to be pacified favelas, with police, community organizations, policy makers and researchers, and an analysis of the published sources, I identify four levels of capital accumulation that are facilitated by the UPP program.