This paper addresses the global reemergence of counterinsurgency in the Urban South by focusing on Brazil’s pacification experience in the context of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Mission in Haiti) and its ongoing application in Rio de Janeiro’s marginalized areas, the favelas. We argue that the transnational export-import of ‘favela-pacification experience’ is closely connected to Brazil ́s geopolitical aspirations. By empirically grounding our argument in the perspectives of local actors on the implementation of this pacification strategy in two marginalized areas of Rio de Janeiro, Maré and Alemão, we trace the strategy’s modifications and local adaptations and demonstrate that the colonial project of pacification, which is central to urban counterinsurgency, extends the domestic competences of the Brazilian military. In developing these arguments, this paper contributes to the largely neglected role of states from the Global South as central actors in the making of global counterinsurgency.