On Friday, February 16^th, the Brazilian federal government issued a public safety decree in the state of Rio de Janeiro—police, firefighters, and intelligence-gathering initiatives—will be placed under military jurisdiction for the rest of 2018. Passed down directly from President Michel Temer with the signature of Rio’s Governor, Luiz Fernando Pezão, the decree explains that “the objective of the intervention is to end the compromised state of public order in the state of Rio de Janeiro.” Ostensibly a response to the steady rise in violent crime in the city since 2012, the act has already garnered criticism from civil society.

The so-called “federal intervention” places General Walter Souza Braga Netto in charge of all branches of the state of Rio’s police, with the ability to appoint his own commanders and deploy federal troops in the state. He will effectively have the same powers as the governor, but restricted to the domain of public security. General Braga Netto was previously in charge of two other national military actions: security during the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio and the 2017 security crisis in the state of Espírito Santo. Details of how he intends to approach his new appointment are only just emerging. Over the weekend, he met with Rio’s governor and top officials, while President Temer also visited the city of Rio. The Rio Metropolitan Area is home to about 75 percent of the state of Rio de Janeiro’s population, and will therefore be the focus of General Braga Netto’s efforts.

The federal powers employed in declaring the intervention have not been used since Brazil’s return to democracy with its 1988 constitution, following 21 years of military rule. The Intercept Brasil reported that President Temer’s decree came even though Rio’s Governor Pezão had asked for less drastic measures. Rio’s Secretary of Security, Roberto Sá, says he was not consulted about the action. General Braga Netto himself was only informed of his new post at the last minute. The decree will thus have to be approved by the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, the two branches of the Brazilian National Congress. Votes are scheduled to take place this coming week.

In a solemn speech on Friday, Temer blamed drug trafficking gangs for the federal intervention. “Organized crime has almost taken charge of the state of Rio de Janeiro,” he said, “[i]t is a tumor that spreads throughout the country and threatens the peace of our people.” Traffickers have recently been emboldened by Rio’s ongoing state of economic crisis, which arose due to a combination of falling oil prices and the political corruption revealed by the Lava Jato investigation. Runaway spending on the 2016 Olympic Games only exacerbated existing economic distress. Since mid-2017, Rio’s public university, UFRJ, has been shuttered, and the state has struggled to pay the salaries of public employees, such as police officers.

Meanwhile, policing programs like the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) have all but collapsed, after initially modest successes in reducing crime. The number of violent deaths in Rio has increased 44% in the past five years from its low point in 2012. In 2017, 6,271 people were killed. Street theft has almost tripled during this period, reaching 125,698 cases in 2017.

Colonel José Vicente Filho, ex-national secretary of Public Security told Globo, “One of the principal motives behind the intervention is the increase of these statistics. There is a quality of violence in Rio de Janeiro that is different than all of the rest of the country.” But a report by The Intercept Brasil found violence in Rio to be less severe than in nine other Brazilian states, citing data from the 11^th Annual Brazilian Forum on Public Security. The Intercept concludes that the lack of emphasis on public safety in other areas of Brazil is a byproduct of a disproportionate reporting emphasis on Brazil’s southeast, where Rio and São Paulo are located. In Rio last year, media giant Globo created a ‘War in Rio’ section as coverage of violence in the state proliferated on local and international channels.

Rio’s citizens are asking what the federal intervention will mean for their daily lives. Raul Jungmann, the Brazilian Minister of Defense, said that they will see “a more robust system of security” in the coming weeks. Residents of Rio’s favelas – informally established urban communities, home to about one fourth of the city of Rio’s population – worry about the implications of military control. Favelas are the nucleus of drug-trafficking activity, although only a tiny percentage of residents are involved. In September 2017, Rio’s Governor Pezão called on the military to occupy the favela of Rocinha, placing tanks on the streets and interrupting residents’ daily lives with the presence of heavily armed federal troops. Rio’s police have used this style of militarized takeover for the past decade to combat traffickers in various favela communities. School closings and the threat of a bala perdida—stray bullet—are the resulting collateral damage for locals. 632 bullets struck innocent people in the first half of 2017, killing 67, according to an investigation from Globo.

The Federation of Favelas of Rio, a non-profit founded to protect vulnerable favela populations in 1963, condemned Temer’s federal intervention, noting that military buildup has traditionally taken priority over social investments in Rio’s political history. “We need an intervention that brings us life, and not death,” read a statement released by the organization on Saturday calling for money for schools, hospitals, employment programs, and youth engagement instead of troops. Further, favela residents have reported abuses during past military occupations, such as the mega-operation that took place during August of 2017 in several communities in Rio’s North Zone. Then, residents complained of being called racial slurs, suffering property damage, and experiencing forced entry of soldiers into their homes. Thanks to a law passed by Temer’s government in 2016, military personnel charged of crimes during the current intervention will be judged by a military tribunal of their peers, rather than enter the normal justice system—a reality that has some worried about how they will be held accountable for their actions in Rio’s communities.

The upcoming week will reveal more about the format of the military takeover of public security in Rio. Furthermore, votes in the Brazilian branches of congress have the potential to derail, or confirm the decree. Rio’s residents await what this “federal intervention” will mean for their city.