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The recent violence erupting in prisons and streets across
Sao Paulo state are primarily retaliatory movements against
the transfer of 765 prisoners, one of whom was the gang's
leader, "Marcola" Camacho, out of the city and into
the remote interior of the state. From May 12 to May 20, 2006,
members of the First Command staged nearly 350 separate attacks,
burning buses, banks, supermarkets, police officers' homes,
and subway stations, inciting at least 82 isolated prison
riots across the country. The mega-rebellion left a stiff
death toll in its wake: over 170 people have died as of July
13, 2006, including 42 police officers and prison guards.
Sao Paulo governor Claudio Lembo of the Liberal Front Party
responded by dispatching 130,000 military and civil police
in the streets.
This recent wave of violence has not been the first time
the PCC has resorted to quasi-terrorism for upholding prisoner-rights.
In 2001, the First Command of the Capital plotted another
major rebellion, which involved nearly 30 prisons across Brazil.
According to José de Jesus Filho, a prison ministry
lawyer in Sao Paulo, the gang took the government by surprise
in its intensity, brutality, and resolve, stating that it
"doesn't just want to challenge the government's power.
It wants to take that power" (Miami Herald).
The First Command of the Capital govern Sao Paulo's slums
and prison system with a cold resolution, quietly operating
under the more theatrical street and prison gangs of Rio de
Janeiro. Their prison-rights mandate involves the defence
of inmate rights in the face of systemic torture and abuse
in Brazilian prisons. Part of its early campaign against prison
rape encouraged the penalty of strangulation or mass stabbing
for all inmates or guards found guilty of sexual assault in
prison. The gang follows a 16-point constitution that declares
a war on the "penal establishment . . . without truce,
without frontiers until the final victory.'' (Miami Herald).
For a sample of some of the prison conditions the gang, and
its allies, protest, see the news reports, "Brazilian
prison riot kills seven" and "Sao
Paulo Prison Guards Strike After Gang Slayings".
The gang's suspected involvement in electoral ambitions has
drawn attention from academics, who claim the gang knows exactly
what it is doing, and for what purpose, and to what extent
it will go to support its political goals. Because of its
alleged commitment to politics and prison-rights over drug-trafficking,
it has also secured greater support for its controversial
actions. Many have feared that the gang's unremitting growth
in influence makes it a contender for Brazil's elected government.
The gang's explosive actions, while brutal in their aftermath,
have nevertheless drawn Brazillian penal establishment to
the international centre-stage. Now in the spotlight are statistics
showing 252,000 inmates nationwide are squeezed into facilities
intended to house only 175,000. About 50% of those prisoners
serve time in São Paulo state.
First Command's leader Comacho has stepped up alliances to
combat the development of rivals, turning the gang into a
"crime monopoly". According to Reuters News, the
gang uses "discipline, technology and business alliances"
to monopolize its control over organized crime in the country.
The PCC uses the assistance of corrupt prison guards, who
provide the gang with arsenals of weapons and cellular phones,
both of which play strategic roles in the organization of
its uprisings.
Monthly fees for members are $22, and include legal fees
for prison-rights attorney-advocates on the outside, as well
as food for inmates and their families.
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