BRAZIL GANG TAKES ON STATE

The PCC Reached Out From Sao Paulo Prisons To Attack Police, Buses, And Banks

RIO DE JANEIRO - The unprecedented series of attacks on law
enforcement that has left as many as 74 people dead and more than 40
prisons under the control of rioting inmates marks the dramatic
resurgence of a criminal gang in Sao Paulo. It also signals a new
power struggle between police and organized crime in Brazil's biggest
state, warn analysts and human rights experts.

The weekend attacks were carried out by the First Capital Command
(PCC), a gang formed in the 1990s in Sao Paulo's notorious prison
system to demand better conditions. But the PCC's audacious and
ongoing attacks beyond the prison walls show they have the means to
confront the state, says Renato Simoes, a human rights expert who has
followed the rise of the group.

"It's a power struggle," says Mr. Simoes, reached by phone. The Sao
Paulo congressman serves on the state's Human Rights Commission. "The
PCC feels emboldened because it senses the government is weak."

The attacks began Thursday and continued into Monday, with bandits
burning more than 60 buses. On Sunday, the violence spread to inmates
rebelling at jails in the neighboring states of Parana and Mato Grosso do Sul.

The initial attacks were launched by PCC members angry at last week's
mass transfer of 756 inmates from the state's jails. Eight of those
transferred were PCC leaders. Prison officials suspected that the PCC
was about to start a state-wide rebellion and they sought to
frustrate their plans by moving the ringleaders.

The so called "megarebellion" was planned for Sunday, Mother's Day,
when thousands of families would be inside jails visiting their loved
ones. It was designed to be a repeat of the sweeping 2001 rebellion
in which inmates seized control of 29 prisons and took some 25,000
people hostage.

That spectacular uprising grabbed world headlines and led law
enforcement to crack down on the gang. Officials thought they had
broken up most of the PCC but experts now say the group was merely
lying low. The PCC has used the intervening years to regroup, both
inside the jails and out.

The PCC is involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, and armed
robbery, says Bruce Bagley, a professor of international studies at
the University of Miami. He says that like the organized crime groups
in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, the PCC derives its power and
proceeds from drug trafficking. "All of these favela groups have
linkages to higher-level organized crime. For example, Fernandhino is
one of the principle drug traffickers. He was captured and put in
jail in Rio after selling drugs for arms with the FARC in Colombia.
He's been operating out of jail with cell phones. He is attempting to
consolidate power."

Professor Bagley notes that Brazil is second only to the US in
cocaine consumption now. "Drug consumption and drug addiction have
risen exponentially in Brazil. The fight is among these gangs and the
police over turf and control of local cocaine sales, transit roots,
and the laboratories they run."

While targets now, the police are often complicit in the trafficking.
"Clearly, professionalization, professional training, and higher
salaries are key to solving Brazil's problems," Bagley says.

Simoes has called on authorities to neutralize the PCC by eliminating
the atrocious prison conditions in which they thrive. Although
officials do not know exactly how many of the state's 120,000 inmates
belong to the PCC, Simoes says that the vast majority of jails are
controlled by the group. Many inmates are terrorized into joining the
gang, but like many organized crime factions, the PCC also buys
loyalty by helping prisoners get lawyers, medicine, and by handing
out the best jobs and cells inside the jail. Prison wardens often
turn a blind eye because the gang also helps keep order.

Authorities must reform the prison system and halt the collusion
between prisoners and guards that enables inmates to obtain
cellphones, drugs, televisions, and other privileges, Simoes says.
"Those in charge of the prison system have to take immediate action," he says.

The PCC launched the first in a series of bloody attacks on Thursday
night, when bandits armed with grenades and machine guns attacked
police stations and left five officers dead. The gang stepped up
their attacks 24 hours later with 55 bombings, ambushes, and drive-by
shootings. The violence continued Saturday with more attacks that
took the death toll to 52. And on Sunday, they reportedly bombed 11
banks and a shopping center and so terrorized people using the city's
transport service that several bus companies withdrew their vehicles
from service. "Getting to work took a lot longer than usual because
there were fewer buses," says Eulalia Perreira, a clerical worker in
Sao Paulo, reached by phone. "I passed two or three burnt-out buses
in my 40-minute journey. Everyone is scared."

The PCC did not say what they hoped to achieve with the violence
other than to show they are a force to be reckoned with and they do
not appear to have an explicitly political or ideological goal,
experts say. "I am pessimistic," says Simoes. "The government thinks
they can resolve this by making declarations and they can't. They
tried this before and it didn't work."