Pablo Dreyfus, according to Rangel Bandeira

An exclusive article for the montlhy newsletter “En la mira – The Latin American Small Arms Watch.” Click here for subscriptions and for previous issues.

An irreparable loss: the disappearance of Pablo Dreyfus, who conceived and edited this newsletter with competence and dedication in the midst of his large list of publications. Pablo and his wife Ana Carolina Rodrigues were in the Air France plane that was lost at sea on June, 1st 2009. He was an Argentinean and a leading expert on firearms control internationally. His travel to Switzerland was due to the annual meeting of the Small Arms Survey Yearbook, of which he was one of main contributors.
 
A unique feature of Pablo’s work was his ability to blend perfectly, sophisticated empirical skills and action in order to transform his ideas and analysis into effective public policies. Usually people are skilled scholars or practitioners; it is very rare to excel in both those areas. Pablo was equally comfortable investigating the involvement of FARC terrorists in the drug trafficking on Colombian jungles, the smuggling of firearms across the river border between Brazil and Paraguay, as well as teaching in the most prestigious universities and speaking in conferences at the United Nations (UN).

His doctoral dissertation at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, in Geneva, was a study on the transnational issue of drug trafficking: “Border Spillover: Drug Trafficking and National Security in South America”. The challenges and risks that permeated his field research led him to realize the importance of one of the most important factors of violence in Latin America: the proliferation of firearms. He was one of the pioneers in this area of research within Security Studies, which erupted as a result of the new phenomenon of growing urban violence.

His studies led him to conclude that Brazil was the country where more people are killed by firearms in the world in absolute numbers. Distressed by what he considered "a true massacre", he decided to work at Viva Rio, refusing offers of governments and organizations of various countries. His coming to Brazil, seven years ago, allowed an insurmountable development in studies on gun control in our country. His collaboration was instrumental to the draft of the Statute of Disarmament, and his arguments that convinced the Brazilians to voluntarily surrender half a million weapons in the Campaign for Disarmament 2004-2005. The first nationally coordinated research on weapons resulted in the book "Brazil: the Arms and the Victims," revealing that 17 million guns circulate among us, about half of them illegally.

During the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) on Illicit Firearms of the Brazilian Congress, he demonstrated how 36 thousand firearms seized in illegal activities had been diverted from gun shops, private security companies and even the police forces. His analysis was fundamental to the reformulation of the internal control mechanisms of the police forces, and became a major contributor, especially to the Public Security Secretariat of Rio and the Federal Police. He was also professor of graduate studies in Public Safety for law enforcements, for the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) and Viva Rio, and he was about to start a course on Firearms control to Police departments of several states, using the Manual of Tracing Small Arms (SENASP. 2009), which he conceived. His last ongoing work was the construction, at the request of the Public Safety Commission from the Chamber of Deputies and the Ministry of Justice, of a National Ranking of Gun Control. This study, which has just been published by the Subcommittee on Firearms and Ammunition of the House of Representatives, examines how state governments are controlling transactions of firearms and ammunition, their major breakthroughs and setbacks, which also aims in guiding investments from the federal government to better fight the illicit traffic of firearms.

Dreyfus collaborated with governments of several countries in the analysis of proliferation of firearms, pointing creative solutions to increase their control and reduce their victims. He helped the government of Mozambique, and the province of Buenos Aires, to delineate the sources of diversion and smuggling of firearms, and his studies led the Paraguayan government to revamp the entire legislation on the subject, causing a drastic reduction in the smuggling of weapons from that country to Brazil.

Pablo expanded its generous cooperation by participating in international negotiations for arms control, and as a consultant to the governments of Bolivia, El Salvador, Haiti, Uruguay and Colombia. We went together to Angola in order to evaluate a campaign to give up weapons that had already collected 250 thousand arms, and we were prepared to develop a research on post-civil war firearms that still were spread across the country. Recently, Pablo was concerned about the return of the “gun brigade” (representatives supported by firearms industries) to the National Congress, which has presented bills crippling the Disarmament Statute. Before embarking on the fatal flight, he even called me from the airport to find our next trip to Brasilia, just to discuss with government members and Congress representatives ways to defend the new law.

Passionate about the Rio, Pablo had been married only for two years with sociologist Ana Carolina Rodriguez. Ana was also from Viva Rio, however, her projects were focused on preventing violence against children and youth from the slums of “Salgueiro” and “Jardim Catarina”. They met when she was in charge of developing projects of peace for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.  They were an outstanding couple.

We all lost an expert who helped the world be less violent, but Brazilians, in particular, have a great debt for this incredible porteño, who charmed the locals when he sang tangos in moments of nostalgia for his country. Nobody has done more to better the relation between Brazil and Argentina.

The ban on civilians carrying firearms, and the giveaway of half a million firearms -two measures that had Dreyfus’ contribution- resulted in an 18% reduction in deaths by firearms in the last 5 years in Brazil. How to accept the premature disappearance of those who avoided the death of more than 6 thousand Brazilians? That’s why we morn the death of Pablo Dreyfus and Ana Carolina.

One of the last tributes to Pablo is to continue his work for peace and solidarity, among his initiatives is the continuation of the newsletter “En la Mira”. His staff, Julio Cesar Purcena and Natasha Leite de Moura, is not willing to let this project die and they count with the support of those of us who have contributed so far to this important, unique channel of information and analysis on how the control of firearms and ammunition is being done in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Antonio Rangel Bandeira, Viva Rio