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Political Structure and Social Banditry in Northeast Brazil*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Peter Singelmann
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Extract

In his pioneering works on Primitive Rebels and Bandits, Eric Hobsbawm analyzed certain forms of rural banditry as primitive social protest. Such ‘social banditry’ was distinguished from ordinary banditry primarily by virtue of its continued incorporation into the traditional peasant society, its attacks against landlords and other authorities and its ‘affinity for revolution, being a phenomenon of social protest, if not a precursor or potential incubator of revolt’. Social banditry was analyzed by Hobsbawm as a reaction of peasants to alien authorities, injustices and major social up-heavals such as war, conquest, or industrialization.

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Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , May 1975 , pp. 59 - 83
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 J. Hobsbawm, Eric, Sozialrebellen (Neuwied, Luchterhand, 1971)Google Scholar and Bandits (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969). The title of the original English edition (1959) of the first book is Primitive Rebels.Google Scholar

2 Hobsbawm, Bandits, ch. I.

3 Ibid., p. 84.

4 Anton, Blok, ‘The Peasant and the Brigand: Social Banditry Reconsidered’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 14 (09 1972), 502.Google Scholar Another statement of his criticism can be found in ‘On Brigandage with Special Reference to Peasant Mobilization’, Sociologia Neelandica, VIII, I (1972), 1–13.

5 Hobsbawm, Bandits, ch. 7.

6 Hobsbawm, Sozialrebellen, pp. 41–3.

7 Ibid., pp. 39–40.

8 Ibid., pp. 16, 43.

9 Hobsbawm, Bandits, pp. 79–80; Sozialrebellen, pp. 17, 27, 33.

10 Hobsbawm himself, in his reply to Blok, emphasized that there is little disagreement on facts but mainly on whether certain forms of banditry can be interpreted as primitive rebellion (‘Social Bandits: Reply’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, XIV (Sept. 1972), 503–505). The main difference thus appears to be one of interpretive emphasis. While Hobsbawm explicitly recognized conservative and repressive aspects in banditry, he emphasized the fact that there are aspects of protest in banditry, and that the type of banditry which does manifest such traits is his proper concern. Blok argues that the element of rebellion is mainly contained in the popular myths about banditry and not in the actual operation of banditry itself. For him the trait that is most significant is the political protection enjoyed by the bandits and the undermining of class solidarity.

11 Optato, Gueiros, Lampião: Memórias de um Oficial ex-Combatente de Fôrças Volantes (Sāo Paulo, Linográfica Ediôtra, 1956), p. 16. Evidently, Lampiāo did not accomplish all these feats singlehandedly but some with the assistance of his followers.Google Scholar

12 Francisco, de Oliveira Vianna, InstituiçŌes Políticas Brascileiras (São Paulo, Livraria José Olympio Editôra, 1949), I, 233;Google ScholarRui, Facó, Cangaceiros e Fanáticos: Gênese e Lutas (Rio de Janeiro, Editôra Civilização Brasileira, 1965), p. 63;Google ScholarRonald, Daus, Der epische Zyklus der Cangaceiros in der Volkspoesie Nordostbrasiliens (Berlin, Colloquium Verlag, 1969), pp. 31–2.Google Scholar

13 Maria, Isaura Pereira de Queiroz, Os Cangaceiros: Les Bandits d'Honneur Bréciliens (Paris, Juillard, Collection Archives no. 34, 1968), pp. 47, 56–57;Google ScholarHernâni, de Carvalho, Sociologia da Vida Rural Bracikira (Rio de Janeiro Editôra Civilização Brasileira, 1951), pp. 50–51;Google Scholar Facó, op. cit., p. 63.

14 Cf. the summary in Daus, op. cit., pp. 32–3; Pereira de Queiroz, op. cit., p. 36.

15 e.g. Edmar, Morel, Padre Cícero: O Santo de Juazeiro (2nd ed., Rio de Janeiro, Editôra Civilização Brasileira, 1966), p. 75.Google Scholar

16 Cf. Daus, op. cit., p. 31 (fn. 86).

17 Facó, op. cit., pp. 65–6.

18 Luiz, Luna, Lampiāo e seus Cabras (Rio de Janeiro, Editôrs Leitura 1963), pp. 113–14, 114 fn.Google Scholar

19 Facó, op. cit., pp. 63–4; Luna, op. cit., pp. 48, 59, 113–14.

20 Djacir, Menezes, O Outro Nordeste (Rio de Janeiro, José Olympio 1937), p. 218;Google Scholar Luna, op. cit., pp. 55, 114; Facó, op. cit., pp. 63–4; Gueiros, op. cit., p. 153. For a discussion of some rehabilitated cangaceiros, see Anglae, Lima de Oliveira, Lampião, Cangaço e Nordeste (2nd ed., Rio de Janeiro, Edições O Cruzeiro 1970), pp. 363–8, 405–29. Filmed interviews with ex-cangaceiros can be seen in the documentary Memorias do Canagaço (released by New Yorker Films). A more detailed discussion of the relationships between police and cangaçoGoogle Scholar will follow below. Note also the arguments of Hobsbawm (Bandits, p. 29) and Blok (‘On Brigandage …,’ pp. 9 11) that brigandage has historically been one avenue open to peasants to ‘make themselves respected’. Other means cited by Hobsbawm were to become ‘village guards, lord's retainers or soldiers’.

21 For general data on land concentration and the problem of latifundia in Brazil, see Alberto, Passos Guimarães, Quatro Séculos de Latifúndio (São Paulo, Editôra Fulgor, 1964)Google Scholar and Manuel, Diégues Junior, População e Propriedade da Terra no Brasil (Washington, D.C., Panamerican Union, 1959).Google Scholar Poverty, illiteracy and other social problems of the sertŌes are discussed with different degrees of systematic documentation in most of the literature (e.g., Menezes, op. cit.; Gueiros, op. cit.; Oliveira Vianna, op. cit.; Facó, op. cit.). On unemployment, see O. Hirschman, Albert, Journeys Toward Progress: Studies in Economic Policy Mating in Latin America (Garden City, Doubleday, 1965), p. 75,Google Scholar and Facó, op. cit., pp. 40, 65. On the periodic droughts in the Northeast and the associated problems of famine and emigration, see Hirschman, op. cit., pp. 31–129. In this context it is interesting to note the observation that the number of cangaceiros increased in periods of hunger (Facó, op. cit., p. 67) and during droughts (Ibid., p. 132, and Hirschman, op. cit., p. 42). Emergency public work programs were usually instituted during major droughts by the Federal Government, but discontinued once the rains set in (Hirschman, op. cit., pp. 47, 50 ff., and Facó, op. cit., p. 65). At the same time, many cangacciros are reported to have been workers discharged from public works projects after the droughts were over (Ibid. p. 65). These data indicate the importance of economic factors in the formation of the cangaço, an issue which merits a separate study.

22 Facó, op. cit., p. 66.

23 See Hobsbawm, Bandits, p. 57; Blok, ‘On Brigandage…,’ p. 7.

24 A scholar intimately familiar with the cangaço (Oliveira, op. cit., p. 323) estimates on the basis of her own research that about 90 per cent of the cangaceiros were forced into banditry due to ‘questions of honor’, vendettas, and their inability to obtain justice for their families from the courts and the police. Oliveira's book is rich in biographical information on many cangaceiros (pp. 156–78, 324–30). For the biography of Chico Pereira, see Pereira Nóbrega, P., Vingança, não: Depoimento Sôbre Chico Pereira e Cangaceiros do Nordeste (2nd ed., Rio de Janeiro, Livraria Freitas Bastos, 1961).Google Scholar For biographical sketches and accounts of the events that precipitated the entry into the cangaço by Lampião, see Eduardo, Barbosa, Lampião, Rei do Cangaço (Rio de Janeiro, Editôra de Ouro, 1968);Google Scholar Luna (op. cit., pp. 29–34 ); Oliveira (op. cit., pp. 28–42); Pereira de Queiroz (op. cit., pp. 74–9); Daus (op. cit., pp. 39–41); for the life of Antônio Silvino, see Oliveira (op. cit., pp. 327–30), Daus(op cit., pp. 39–40) and Pereira de Queiroz (op. cit., pp. 60–72).

25 Sozialrebellen, pp. 19–31.

26 This political chance factor which led some sertanejos into the cangaço and others into positions of respectability is reflected in Luna's comment (op. cit., p. 24) that ‘Lampião himself … could today be a Colonel in the Public Forces of Pernambuco or Alagoas. This post was attained by Manuel Neto and José Lucena, men from the same region in the sertŌes, but who, in contrast to him, had the opportunity to find a place for themselves in the police and fight under the protection of the law and the authorities with government arms and money against the common enemy’ (author's translation). Because of this political factor many of the can gaceiros were not recruited from the mobile and marginal sectors of the rural population (cf. Hobsbawm, Bandits, pp. 24–9) but from peasant small- holders whose families became broken up by vendettas.

27 Bandits, p. 38.

28 See Gueiros, op. cit., p. 147; Luna, op. cit., pp. 107, 111–13; Pereira de Queiroz, op. cit., pp. 172–3; Menezes, op. cit., pp. 217–19.

29 E.g. Pereira de Queiroz, op. cit., p. 120.

30 See Luna, op. cit., p. 64; Oliveira, op. cit., pp. 112–14, 292–8.

31 See Oliveira Vianna, op. cit., 1, 226–32.

32 Ibid., op. cit., pp. 292–8.

33 Facó, op. cit., p. 68; Gueiros, op. cit., p. 15; Oliveira, op. cit., pp. 292–8.

34 Cf. Gueiros, op. cit., p. 129 ff.

35 Lampião's long-time persecutor, Optato Gueiros, writes in his memoirs (op. cit.):… he lived there surrounded by cultured people, playing and gambling day and night, being served the finest drinks and nourishing himself with the best food' (p. 153) ‘…I think I know almost all of them (the couteiros), big and small. Individuals who never possessed anything turned rich in a few days of dealing with Lampião’ (pp. 158–9) ‘…If I had to preoccupy myself with Lampião's friends or with those who had commercial transactions with him, this would constitute a separate and more voluminous book which could only be published fifty years after my death’ (p. 559)…(quoting the journalist Abrão Ben. jamin who accompanied and filmed Lampião for six months in 1936): ‘when matters were not too tight we had anything available in the house of some rich person’ (p. 175) (author's own translation).

36 On caciquismo and the related phenomenon of caudillaje, Eric, cf.Wolf, R. and Edward, C. Hansen, ‘Caudillo Politics: A Structural Analysis’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 9 (01 1967), pp. 168–79;Google ScholarHugh, M. Hamill Jr (ed.), Dictatorship in Spanish America (New York, Knopf, 1967);Google ScholarJacques, Lambert, Latin America: Social Structures and Political Institutions (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1967).Google Scholar

37 Luna, op. cit., p. 26.

38 Classic studies of coronelismo are Vitor, Nunes Leal, Coronelismo, Enxada a Voto (Rio de Janeiro, 1948)Google Scholar and Jean, Blondel, As Condições da Vida Politica no Estado da Paraiba (Rio de Janeiro, Fundaço Gerulio Vargas, 1957).Google Scholar On the origins of coronelismo in a broader perspective, see Oliveira Vianna, op. cit., vol. I.

39 For a more complete survey, see Oliveira Vianna, op. cit., vol. I.

40 Wolf and Hansen, op. cit., pp. 170–71.

41 Still in the twentieth century many towns seem to be only temporary foci of integration, as in the holding of markets, festivities or elections. The politically dominant forces reside outside the town on the fazendas. See Lynn Smith, T., ‘The Locality Group Structure of Brazil’, American Sociological Review, 9 (02 1944), 41–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 Oliveira, Vianna, op. cit., 1, 210 ff;Google Scholar Smith, op. cit., p. 47.

43 Oliveira, Vianna, op. cit., 1, 213–25.Google Scholar

44 Examples for such vendettas have been provided for the colonial period by Barroso, Gustavo, Heróis e Bandidos (Rio de Janeiro, Francisco Alves, 1917), pp. 127–34;Google ScholarJaynes Chandler, Billy, The Feitosas and the Sertão dos Inhamuns (Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1972), pp. 20–34.Google Scholar For examples from the Republican period, see Rodrigues, de Carvalho, Serrote Prêto: Lampião e seus Sequazes (Rio de Janeiro, Sociedade Editôra Gráfica, 1961), pp. 124–47;Google Scholar Pereira de Queiroz, op. cit., pp. 35–47. Late in the nineteenth century, João Brigido (cited in Oliveira, Vianna, op. cit., 1, 197) observed that ‘… in [the state of] Ceará, those who don't have relatives who were killed have relatives who have killed’.Google Scholar

45 Oliveira, Vianna, op. cit., 1, 197–8.Google Scholar

46 Blondel, op. cit.; Nunes Leal, op. cit.

47 Oliveira, Vianna, op. cit., 1, 285–6. Under the Republican regime after 1891, the provinces became states, and most of the provincial presidents came to be designated governors.Google Scholar

48 Some good examples can be found in Chandler, op. cit., pp. 59–60, 70, 107.

49 Ibid., pp. 63–78; Oliveira, Vianna, op. cit., 1, 287, 300–312.Google Scholar

50 This section draws mainly on the works of Nunes Leal, op. cit., Blondel, op. cit., and Oliveira Vianna, op. cit., vol. I.

51 Chandler also noted the lack of differentiation of private and public power in the Inhamuns of Ceará (op. cit., p. 77). In a comparative perspective, cf. Blok's observation that brigandage emerges when the state lacks a monopoly over means of force (‘On Brigandage …’, pp. 7, 9–10).

52 Nunes Leal, op. cit., pp. 32, 203.

53 Further illuminating examples can be found in Chandler, op. cit., pp. 56–63, 66–78.

54 Pereira de Queiroz, op. cit., pp. 60–72; Daus, op. cit., pp. 38–9.

55 Gueiros, op. cit., p. 15.

56 In 1927 the Diário da Manhã (Recife) wrote: ‘It is known that Lampião, today severely persecuted by the Police of Paraíba, had his school of banditry there, giving political service to various masters of the rope and knife. There are numerous schools of rhis kind in Pernambuco, Ceará, Alagoas, and Bahia, whose teachers are the chiefs with the ability to teach and whose students are the followers giving their first demonstrations of their abilities as apprentices. Lampião and his like principally act by following orders transmitted to them in the past, present, and future. Afterwards, they comprehend the orders and begin to act in their own behalf, in the certitude that impunity is a fact and social justice a myth’ (cited in Menezes, op. cit., pp.225–2; author's own translation).

57 Oliveira, op. cit., pp. 156–78, 232, 330.

58 Gueiros, op. cit., pp. 99–100; Oliveira, op. cit., pp. 319, 323–4; Chandler, op. cit., pp. 122–3.

59 Cf. the above discussion of couteiros (Oliveira, op. cit., pp. 292–8). O Ceará wrote in 1925: ‘The protection which [the cangaceiros] encountered on the part of the political bosses and of the population itself insures them impunity and constant victories over the official [police] forces ’ (see Menezes, op. cit., p. 206; author's own translation).

60 Menezes, op. cit., pp. 191–3.

61 Op. cit., p. 113. Cf. also the thorough documentation of cases by Chandler, op. cit., pp. 41, 59, 79–101. In a comparative perspective, Blok has particularly emphasized that brigandage cannot maintain itself without political protection (‘On Brigandage …’, pp. 4–7) and suggested the hypothesis that ‘The more successful a man is as a bandit, the more extensive the protection granted him’ (ibid., p. 6).

62 Menezes, op. cit., p. 204.

63 Facó, op. cit., p. 186; also Pereira de Queiroz, op. cit., p. 120.

64 Oliveira, op. cit., p. 296.

65 Eduardo, Barbosa, Lampião, Rei do Cangaço (Rio de Janeiro, Editôra de Ouro, 1968), pp. 57–20.Google Scholar

66 Facó, op. cit., pp. 173 ff., 185 ff.; Morel, op. cit., pp. 80–2.

67 Pedro da Costa Rêgo, then governor of Alagoas, complained about the situation in his 1925 message to the state Congress: ‘[it] began almost always in the same manner. When the criminal committed his first crime, there was somebody who hid and protected him maliciously in his own company. The authorities came to look for him. The protector sought recourse from the political boss. The judiciary tried to submit him to the penalties of the law. The political boss sought recourse from the government. The government, by indirect means, acceded to the political boss, because it had the illusion … that there is only one way to govern: by tolerating the abuses of the local powers so that they can contribute to the popularity of the government. Many agricultural proprietors consider their lands inviolable when the police penetrate them; but they keep themselves always ready to give protection to the criminals’ (see Facó, op. cit., pp. 186–7: author's own translation). For general observations on this matter, see Facó (ibid., pp. 187–8), including related complaints by the governor of Pernambuco in 1926.

68 Nunes Leal, op. cit., p. 10.

69 Ibid., pp. 153–7.

70 Ibid., p. 145.

71 Facó, op. cit., p. 44; Nunes, op. cit., pp. 28–9, 145–6, 158; Chandler, op. cit., pp. 41–2, 59.

72 Luna, op. cit., pp. 23–4; Facó, op. cit., p. 44; Guciros, op. cit., pp. 13–14; Pereira de Queiroz, op. cit., pp. 127–30; Barbosa, op.cit., pp. 93–5.

73 Guciros, op. cit., pp. 13–14; cf. also Pereira de Queiroz, op. cit., pp. 120–2.

74 Luiz Luna (op. cit., p. 23), for example, writes about cangacciros: ‘For strange reasons, generally derived from their particular social and economic situation and often from their political position in front of a government which in the sertões is often represented by the preponderance of the most powerful “coronel,” they could not “legalize” themselves; they did not have an opportunity to become police soldiers. But in practice the actions of the cangaceiros were similar to those of the soldiers of the volante … kill, beat, persecute, sack, and burn’. On the other hand, the functionaries who were armed and paid by the government ‘… were covered by the law, transformed into police soldiers … But their work was to kill cangaceiros and couteiros and also to beat, persecute, invade villages and fazendas, to sack and burn … They dressed like the cangacciros … and they employed soldiers as well as cangaceiros in their macabre exploits’ (author's own translation).

75 On Padre Cícero and his domination over the Cariri Valley, see Morel, op. cit.; on the fanáticos, see Facó, op. cit. and Daus, op. cit., pp. 34–6.

76 Facó, op. cit., pp. 125–6.

77 Ibid., pp. 155 ff.; Morel, op. cit., pp. 65 ff.

78 Ibid., p. 89; Facó, op. cit., p. 128.

79 The text of the agreement is published in Morel, op. cit., pp. 56 ff. For a further analysis, cf. Facó, op. cit., pp. 152 ff.

80 Ibid., pp. 163, 167–8.

81 For a more detailed account, see Morel, op. cit., pp. 89–90; Luna, op. cit., p. 59; Facó, op. cit., p. 166.

82 Morel, op. cit., pp. 79–80; Luna, op. cit., p. 59; Facó, op. cit., pp. 149 ff. There have been many speculations about the nature of the relationship between padre Cicero and Floro Bartolomeu. Apparently the padre depended on the political and military genius of his aide as much as the latter owed his derivative prestige to the confidence of the priest. There are indications that in some instances Bartolomeu was the actual driving force behind the decisions of the padre (Morel, op. cit., pp. 105–106; Facó, op. cit., pp. 159–60).

83 Facó, op. cit., pp. 161–2.

84 Ibid., pp. 169 ff.

85 E.g. Morel, op. cit., p. 79.

86 Ibid., p. 53; Facó, op. cit., p. 189; Menezes, op. cit., p. 213; Luna, op. cit., p. 59.

87 Cited in Menezes, op. cit., p. 219.

88 Ibid., pp. 217–9. For an eyewitness account regarding the domination of the town of Aurora (Ceará) by coronéis, capangas and cangaceiros, see Ibid., p. 222 (fn.12).

89 Facó, op. cit., pp. 173 ff., 185 ff.

90 Morel, op. cit., p. 103.

91 Luna, op. cit., pp. 60–61.

92 Nelson, Werneck Sodré, Histôria Militar do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, Editôra Civilização Brasileira, 1965), pp. 222–3, fn. 30.Google Scholar

93 Ibid., pp. 222–3.

94 For accounts of the events, see Morel, op. cit., pp. 99 ff.; Facó, op. cit., pp. 183–4; Luna, op. cit., pp. 61–2.

95 Morel, op. cit., p. 103.

96 Gueiros, op. cit., pp. 75–7.

97 Pereira de Queiroz, op. cit., pp. 75–6; Oliveira, op. cit., p. 230.

98 Guciros, op. cit., pp. 73, 79.

99 Bandits, pp. 76–83.

100 Cf. also Hobsbawm's comparative analysis in Bandits, pp. 78–80.

101 Daus, op. cit., pp. 72–6, 95–102.

102 E.g. Blok, ‘The Peasant and the Brigand …’, p. 503 and ‘On Brigandage…’, pp. 10–11.

103 Compare similar observations by Hobsbawm, Sozialrebellen, pp. 27–31, 35–6. For some of the myths and episodes about Lampião, see Guciros, op. cit., and Macêdo, op. cit. For popular poems and songs about Lampio, see Macedo, ibid. An excellent scientific analysis of the popular ballads about Lampião and Antônio Silvino within their socio-historical context is the book by Daus, op. cit.

104 Daus, op. cit., pp. 72–82; Blok, ‘On Brigandage …’, pp. 9, 11.

105 These are some speculative suggestions. But the endemic violence in Latin American politics—especially in caciquismo and caudillaje—as well as the tenuous distinctions between generals, patriots and bandits in the nineteenth century has been widely noted. On caudillaje see Wolf, and Hansen, , op. cit.; and The Human Condition in Latin America (New York, Oxford University Press, 1972), pp. 205–249;,Google Scholar Hamill, op. cit.; and Lambert, op. cit. There appear to have been some striking similarities in the social origins and political involvements of canagacciros and the bandits of the violencia in Colombia - an issue which merits further study. See Germán, Guzmán, Orlando, Fals Borda and Umaña Luna, E., La Violencia en Colombia: Estudio de un Proceso Social, vol. I (Bogotá, Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1962)Google Scholar and James, M. Daniel, Rural Violence in Colombia since 1946 (Washington, D.C., The American University, 1965).Google Scholar In this connexion it is relevant to note Hobsbawm's argument that during times of revolution, many bandits (such as Pancho Villa in Mexico) have joined the forces of revolution or independence and that the boundaries between peasant banditry and peasant revolution are often hard to draw (Bandits, pp. 85–93).

106 Bandits, p. 19.