“É, É O MUNDO À REVELIA!”: UMA ANÁLISE JURÍDICA DO FENÔMENO DO PODER PARALELO EM GRANDE SERTÃO: VEREDAS E SEU REFLEXO CONTEMPORÂNEO

Abstract

From the 1980s onwards, the term "Parallel Power" came to be used to refer to Brazilian criminal organizations, whose complex structure resembles the State’s bureaucratic apparatus. However, the existence of armed groups assuming typical functions of the State in regions far from large cities is an old phenomenon in the Brazilian reality, widely explored in the literature. In the book Grande Sertão: Veredas, João Guimarães Rosa portrays the daily life of the jagunços, armed men who provide security services to local political bosses and exercise authority in the sertão, through the collection of undue taxes and the judgement of the transgressors of the sertanejo law, based on the “Jagunço System”. In contemporary times, militias—paramilitary groups made up of police officers, former police officers, firefighters, prison guards, and civilians—have expanded in the State of Rio de Janeiro, with the promise of providing security to residents of poor communities in exchange for a monthly financial contribution. Considering this context, it is asked if the State’s omission in certain Brazilian territories is connected to the Parallel Power’s emergence. Thus, the present work seeks to understand, from the book Grande Sertão: Veredas and from the modern-day militias, the relationship between the phenomenon of Parallel Power and the State omission; analyze the episode of the trial of Zé Bebelo in Grande Sertão: Veredas; investigate the concept and constitutive elements of Parallel Power; and to analyze the private militias, relating the events narrated in the literary work to the contemporary situation. To this end, a qualitative methodology of documentary analysis was adopted, in a multidisciplinary discussion of the academic production on the subject, with emphasis on the work of authors such as Willi Bolle, Walnice Galvão, Bruno Paes Manso, Alba Zaluar, Isabel Siqueira Conceição and Ignacio Cano. In the end, it was concluded that the absence of the State in marginalized regions of Brazil provided opportunities for the rise of different modalities of Parallel Power.