Instead, in 1943 the FBI invited Plinio to its training academy in Washington D.C. Plinio was not the only Brazilian officer invited to an FBI training academy; the strategies and influence of the FBI on Brazil’s police was brought by agents such as Larson. With the war years, the U.S. was eager to set up a FBI-run police school to maintain a strong influence and connection with Brazil. After returning from his trip to the United States, Plinio provided the FBI this opportunity, when he decided that the only way for the Rio de Janeiro officials to accept his new federal police organization was for FBI agents to come to Rio and provide lectures. In Larson’s lectures, “five of the lecture topics covered espionage, counterespionage, Fifth Column…show more content… trained Brazilian, general Kruel. Kruel was part of a group of 11 Brazilians chosen to military train in 1943 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The point of the training was to teach these Brazilians modern methods of warfare, rather than the old French style they had known. When Kruel returned to Brazil, he became head of the intelligence Section of the Forca Expedicionaria Brasileira (providing U.S. purpose to maintain contact with him). In 1950, Kruel “took over” Rio de Janeiro’s police force. Due to the business class complaining about the growing number of robberies of Rio businesses, Kruel visited the U.S in 1958 for assistance. Kruel came back with the bureaucracy ‘Point Four Program’. He also created a handpicked sixteen special police force, which he granted permission to use “... aggressive, violent action against robbers and bandits”. The Civil Police’s Esquadrao Motorizada (usually dubbed “E.M” for Esquadra de Morte) operated under Servico de Diligencia Especial. This meant that these bandit hunters essentially operated under the constitution. The E.M. would enter Rio slums, leaving the bodies of victims marked with skull and crossbones, and with notes that read “‘I was a thief,” or “I sold Drugs”. Kruel denied that his squad was a death squad, and instead stated that they “did not fail to kill”. Consequently, the E.M. led to the death squad Turma de Pesada (squad…show more content… between 1969 and 1974 alone, at least 1,558 Brazilians were tortured by police and military during interrogation (only including known political prisoners and not common criminals”. In 1974 U.S. congress banned most U.S. assistance to foreign police due to investigations into the U.S.-Brazilian police assistance program, and assisted countries abuse of human rights. However, in 1990 the U.S. still had more than 125 police assistance programs abroad, including in Brazil. Furthermore, anti-narcotics training was excluded from the ban and Ronald Reagan reinstated assistance against “terrorism”. What the 20th century of Brazil reveals, is that police violence portrayed by the Brazilian films were indeed a
