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LatinNews Daily - 02 March 2020

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BRAZIL: Police ends mutiny in Ceará

On 1 March, military police (PM) officers in Brazil’s north-eastern state of Ceará agreed to end an almost fortnight-long strike and return to work.

Analysis:

Demands for salary increases had led parts of the PM force in Ceará to launch protests from 18 February, in defiance of the law which prohibits them from striking, and leading what the authorities described as acts of mutiny and vandalism. It now appears that the protesting PM have largely bowed to the terms offered by the state in agreeing to end their strikes.

  • An agreement was reached yesterday after several days of negotiations in a committee created on 26 February, which included representatives from the three branches of Ceará’s state government, the state public prosecutor’s office (MP-CE), the armed forces, the Brazilian bar association (OAB) and members of Ceará state capital Fortaleza’s 18th PM battalion, representing the demands of the force. 
  • The state government has agreed to invest R$495m (US$111m) into police salaries by 2022. Governor Camilo Santana has refused to give amnesty to the mutineers, but the agreement minimises reprisals for PM officers involved in the strike, and guarantees them fair judicial proceedings, which will be overseen by a specially created independent committee. In counterpart, the striking PM officers agreed to end their occupation of police stations and return to work today (2 March).
  • The federal justice & public security minister, Sérgio Moro, celebrated the end of the strike on Twitter. “Common sense prevailed, without radicalisations. Congratulations all”, he wrote. The federal government had provided security reinforcements to the state, which included sending in the armed forces for a period which was extended to 6 March last week.
  • Despite these reinforcements, Ceará suffered from a spike in lethal violence during the PM mutiny. The state public security secretariat recorded 170 homicides between 19 and 24 February, while data gathered by news site G1 points to a total 364 homicides in the state in February, a 138% increase on last year.  

Looking Ahead: The Ceará state government’s relative victory in this face-off with its police force may be taken as a positive sign by other states, many of which are also involved in negotiations over police salary increases.   

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