72

This article contributes to military sociology and international relations from the perspective of use of the military for humanitarian tasks: the participation of the Brazilian military in the UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti (MINUSTAH, 2004-2017. Based on the analysis of forty semi-structured interviews with Brazilian military officials and observation conducted in the Brazilian military base, as well as in the neighborhoods of Bel-Air and Cité Soleil in Haiti, this study shows that Brazilian military take up the interpretation of humanitarianism enshrined in the UN mandate while insisting on the warlike character of the operation. This warlike interpretation has its foundation in the “fight against the enemy within” operations, characteristic of the Brazilian army since the 1970s, first against urban guerrillas against the dictatorship, before becoming «urban pacification» operations in neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro.