Terceiro comando puro e o narcopentecostalismo: (in)segurança no Brasil à luz dos estudos críticos de segurança

Abstract

This paper departs from the following research question: in what ways does the articulation between the Terceiro Comando Puro and the phenomenon known as narcopentecostalism constitute a legitimation practice of criminal governance that produces dynamics of (in)security in Brazilian urban peripheries? To answer it, the research analyzes narcopentecostalism as a phenomenon that, having emerged organically in peripheral communities and been gradually assimilated by the TCP, comes to produce and reproduce dynamics of (in)security, with emphasis on Rio de Janeiro. Drawing on a qualitative approach and a case study method, the work mobilizes the theoretical framework of Critical Security Studies (CSS), articulating the contributions of the Copenhagen, Paris, and Wales Schools. The central hypothesis holds that narcopentecostalism strengthens the social legitimacy and criminal governance of the TCP, exposing the limits of the State in the production of security and consolidating a dynamic of (in)security marked by the action of non-state actors in the dispute for authority and territorial control. The results indicate that the TCP, by incorporating neopentecostal religious discourse, not only legitimizes its authority among peripheral communities, but also operates as a producer and manager of social unease, in the terms of the Paris School, while simultaneously deepening structures of domination that restrict individual emancipation, as argued by the Wales School. It is concluded that narcopentecostalism constitutes a sophisticated mechanism of non-state securitization, which exploits the institutional vacuum of the Brazilian State to consolidate alternative forms of governance, rendering (in)security a structural product of the TCP's operation.