Brazil’s fearsome militias: mafia boom increases threat to democracy

Rio's heavily armed paramilitary groups have exploded in influence in recent years to wield power over dozens of communities

The theme from Mel Gibson's Braveheart filled the air as the man accused of helping spawn Rio's paramilitary mafia movement was lowered into the soils of a graveyard called the Garden of Longing. Fireworks exploded overhead.

My brother was a noble man with a magnificent heart," said the dead man's sibling, Natalino Guimaraes, as he and hundreds of mourners prepared to say their last goodbye.