This paper explores the notion of "moving thresholds of tolerance towards violence" in the context of counter crime and drugs policies involving the deployment of military forces in Tijuana and Rio de Janeiro. By relying on a set of interviews and archive research, it explores official narratives concerning insercurity perception with regardss either the geographical displacement of a threat outsides "favelas" or the changing of target victims affecting mostly business class and doctors. It then will compare with the violent working of states in aforementioned areas, to grasp the constructed meaning of what is taken as an internal security threat played by drug trafficking.
