16. From Private Militias to Bandit Groups
At the root of bandit groups formed in the hinterland by hitherto respectable figures like Garcia Leal was a traditional patron-client relationship. Landowners like Leal were close to the cowboys who tended their herds. Loyal cowboys were expected to defend, weapons in hand, the interests of their boss. Due to rivalries between powerful families, wealthy land barons often surrounded themselves with armed supporters: de facto private militias or armies. Eventually, some of those armed bands slipped from the control of their patrons, and turned to banditry. In some regions, the powerful magnates, commonly known as colonels, kept those proto-cangaceiros in check. Elsewhere, the bandits ran riot. Some, such as Lampião, captured the popular imagination and were likened to Robin Hoods, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Others were seen as pre-revolutionary figures, who challenged and subverted the oppressive social order of their time and region.
The rural bandit group phenomenon could not have occurred or lasted for as long as it did without significant support from some locals. Known as coiteiros, they helped the cangaceiros with food and shelter. They often did so because they were relatives, friends, former neighbors of the bandits, out of self-interest, or from fear. Pitted against the bandits were small units of soldiers, usually twenty to sixty men, known volantes. Recruited from throughout the Brazilian federation, they were armed and trained as paramilitaries and sent out to seek out and destroy the cangaceiros. The bandits referred to them as monkeys, because of their brown uniforms and their willingness to obey orders. Some volantes were armed with the then-modern Hotchkiss machine guns, which the bandits grew to fear, and were quite eager to steal or purchase from corrupt volantes for their own use.
