🔒 Penal populism

IN THIS ISSUE

• 🔒 Rio inspired by Bukele

• 💸 Budget projections look bleak for Brazil

• 🇵🇸 And a free-trade deal with Palestine

Rio’s mayor wants to copy El Salvador’s playbook 

Eduardo Paes, the longtime mayor of Rio de Janeiro now serving his fourth non-consecutive term, is planning to fly to El Salvador and study the country’s tough-on-crime approach as he eyes a run for governor of Brazil’s third-most populous state next year.

What he is saying. “It’s no secret that violence plagues every city in Rio de Janeiro state — nor that, under Brazil’s Constitution, public security is the state government’s responsibility. But with crime now the top concern nationwide, mayors are increasingly being called to act,” Paes said in an April interview.

Zoom in. Earlier this year, Paes proposed that Rio’s unarmed Municipal Guard be transformed into an elite police force used for crime prevention. He later backed down, but the municipal legislature went ahead and approved a bill yesterday allowing the force to bear arms.

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