CV NEWS FEED// Brazilian Catholics from Rio are accusing a powerful Evangelical drug lord of closing their churches.
Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa, called Peixão (Big Fish), controls five slums in northern Rio de Janeiro, which he calls the Complexo do Israel (The Israel Complex.) He is a “narco-pentecostal” who combines his violent drug trafficking with evangelicalism, The Guardian explains.
Wanted for murder, trafficking, and concealing a human corpse, Peixão’s territory is graffitied with Stars of David and quotes from the Psalms.
On July 6th, two Catholic parishes near the Complexo do Israel suspended both masses and church meetings “until further notice.” Parishioners immediately blamed Peixão, but the social media posts from the churches were deleted.
Next, the Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported receiving information that two other Catholic churches closed temporarily after two armed men arrived on motorcycles demanding that the churches stop performing baptisms and weddings.
Although the Archdiocese of Rio and Rio’s public security secretary have denied the rumors, the military police started an operation to break down barricades into the Complexo do Israel, so that they could prevent “instability in the region and ensure that churches can operate and that residents are safe,” the government stated.
The “narco-pentecostals” have previously attacked and shut down Afro-Brazilian temples in their area, but they have not previously targeted local Catholics.
Evangelicalism has boomed throughout Brazil in the past 40 years. In the 1980s, Evangelicals accounted for approximately 7% of the population, and now make up 30%. Catholics, conversely, have dropped from 83% of the population to about 50%.
Evangelical pastors have focused on ministering to areas suffering from violence, poverty, and drug abuse, and pastors have brought gang lords to Christianity in an attempt to prevent violence. In Peixão’s case, this resulted in a bizarre fundamentalism used to justify his violence.
Octavio Guades, a commentator and former newspaper editor, stated on the television program GloboNews, “They call themselves evangelicals but I refuse to use this term. In reality, [Peixão] is a narco-religious-fundamentalist.”
