Reports that a powerful Rio drug lord known for his extremist beliefs ordered the closure of Catholic churches near his citadel have hurt worshipers and security experts and exposed the emergence of a “narco-pentecostal” movement made up of armed evangelical drug traffickers.
Claims appeared in the Brazilian press over the weekend that Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa – the head of the gang known as Peixão (Big Fish) – has decided that three places of worship should be closed in and around the cluster of favelas he controls in northern Rio. .
Since Peixão – whose nickname comes from the ichthys fish “Jesus” – took power in 2016 in five favelas known as the Complexo de Israel, which refers to the evangelical belief that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land is a step towards the second coming of Christ and Armageddon.
A neon Star of David is erected at the top of the complex and at night can be seen for miles around – an unmistakable symbol of Peixão’s power and faith. The roofs of the red houses of the favelas are covered with blue and white Israeli flags that mark the border of the gang-controlled area. [emphasis added]. When the police raided one of his hideouts in 2021, they found a swimming pool with a wall painting of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem and the words: “Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah.”
In the past, Peixão’s soldiers were accused of looting Afro-Brazilian temples and preventing Afro-Brazilian celebrations in the Complex of Israel, where more than 100,000 people live. But this week’s reports are the first to concern Catholic places of worship.
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