Rioting in Brazil

[Aplomb]

I just think we should have a thread on this as it has been going on for years and I for one haven't known anything about it.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425822/756303

Inmate beheaded in Brazil riot

un 20, 2006
At least two inmates died and one of the bodies was beheaded in a three-day prison riot in Brazil that ended on Monday with the release of more than 250 hostages, security officials said.


A spokeswoman for the Espirito Santo state security secretariat said authorities negotiated the release of the hostages without giving in to the demands of the riot leaders in the Viana maximum-security prison. It was the third prison riot in the state in the past few days.


The prisoners demanded that drug-gang kingpins, who are isolated in a federal police detention centre, be transferred back to the prisons where they were initially sent to serve their sentences.


"There was no pact, no conditions were met," said the spokeswoman. Eighty troops from the National Public Security Force also arrived in the state to help contain prison rebellions, she added.


In two other riots in coastal Espirito Santo that started last week, one prisoner was killed and more than 50 people were taken hostage, then released over the weekend.



In Viana, some 500 km north of Rio de Janeiro, inmates took over 250 visitors and a prison guard hostage on Saturday. Nearly all of the hostages were women and children who had been visiting prisoners.


The inmates had tied the guard to a gas bottle, threatening to blow it up if police stormed the prison.


On Sunday, rioting inmates displayed two bodies, one of them beheaded, on the wall next to a watchtower, authorities said. The Globo news agency said a third inmate was slain on Monday, but the spokeswoman would not confirm that.

The prison, built for 532 inmates, houses 711 prisoners.
Security officials are wary of a repeat of last month's wave of gang violence that swept the state of Sao Paulo. A powerful drug gang unleashed the bloodshed in retaliation for the transfer of its leaders to a remote prison.


Prison riots, attacks on police and residents of South America's biggest megalopolis and consecutive police retaliation killed nearly 200 people in mid-May.

[Aplomb]

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...6/ai_n16364664

Brazil gripped by fear as gang riots spread


Independent, The (London), May 16, 2006 by Ciara O'Sullivan in Sao Paulo

Dozens more people, mostly prisoners, were killed and the streets of Brazil's capital gripped by fear yesterday as a crime wave of unprecedented violence swept over Sao Paulo for a third night, taking the overall death toll to more than 70.


Members of the PCC, a notorious criminal gang known throughout the state as the First Command of the Capital, torched buses and hurled grenades at police stations as they stepped up their attacks, called a "barbarous civil war" by human rights groups. Tens of thousands of commuters, mostly impoverished workers, were unable to get to work yesterday as bus companies suspended operations and armed police manned checkpoints on main roads.




Prison riots provoked last weekbythe transfer of more than 700 prisoners to solitary confinement in a high-security prison showed no sign of abating, with inmates fighting security forces at 45 detention centres and jails and holding hundreds of people hostage. Eight guards have been killed.


"It's getting out of control here," said Maria Marta Iinuu, 37. "Everyone is wary, scuttling between home and work, hoping to get indoors safely. It's worse than ever."


Since Friday night, Sao Paulo has seen the worst spate of violence in the state's history since the attacks began on Friday. The PCC, a powerful gang rooted in the state's prison system, has used its footsoldiers, known as "Bin-Ladens" or "Lizards" to kill policemen, civil guards, prison guards, firemen and civilians. Prisons havebeen torched and numerous hostages taken as masked gangs parade the rooftops. Sao Paulo's infamous jails are the unenviable home to roughly half of all Brazil's prisoners, and the numbers in the state are growing by 1,500 every month.




The violence is a response by the PCC to a decision by the State Penitentiary Administrator, Nagashi Fu-rukawa, to move 765 of its members and their leaders to a secure location, hoping it would act as a deterrent for planned rebellions. The decision backfired spectacularly. Day and night, guns, grenades and homemade bombs have been used in about 120 co-ordinated attacks by gangsters.


President Lula da Silva yesterday called an emergency meeting to discuss ways of containing the wave of terror, offering to deploy federal police and army support to Sao Paulo's state governor, Claudio Lembo. But the offer was refused by Mr Lembo, a member of the opposition party, who claims the situation is "under control". Instead, negotiations with PCC leadership continued. They are demanding that disciplinary procedures are changed and 60 televisions are delivered to the prisons so inmates can watch next month's World Cup.


Through Sunday night and into the early hours of yesterday morning more than 60 buses were torched by masked armed criminals who evacuated passengers first. Fearful drivers and bus owners stayed off work, bringing the commuter population to a standstill. "The people affected by this don't have money for taxis, the rich are driving their own cars or staying at home, it's strangely quiet on most roads," complained 64-year-old Pedro Guimaraes.


The PCC is a highly organised criminal faction originating in 1993 inside jails and focused on defending prisoners' rights. Within years it was hijacked by a wider criminal network, operating similarly to the Italian mafia, according to Walter Maiero-vitch, a retired Sao Paulo judge, drugs expert and head of the Giovanni Falcone Brazilian Institute of Criminal Science. "They have access to top-of-the range communications networks include cellphones and computers, they are housed together in the same jails and so are able to mobilise twice as fast as any state organ. They will always be one step ahead until that link is broken."

[Aplomb]

http://english.ohmynews.com/articlev...at_code=331013

Brazil Prison Riots Spark Fear More than 60 killed in weekend violence in multiple cities

More than 60 people died last weekend in prison riots scattered across four Brazilian states -- Sao Paulo, Parana, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Minas Gerais.

Each death happened under a wave of violence that started Friday night in several penitentiaries. Thousands of prisoners began a regional rebellion under PCC orders. PCC, which stands for Primeiro Comando da Capital (or First Capital Command), is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in Brazil, along with Comando Vermelho (or Red Command).

Among those killed and injured were policemen, investigators, prison directors, and firemen. The attacks started when motorcycles ran in front of police and army battalions and the motorists opened fire against state officials. After this, prisoners set fire to a mattress and started the confusion. The Brazilian media is already saying that the country is under a civil war.

Throughout this weekend as Brazil celebrated Mother's Day, newspapers from around the world picked up the story. A headline in the Los Angeles Times read "Police are targeted in deadly attacks, prison riots in Brazil." The BBC wrote "More die in fresh Brazil violence." The New York Times ran "Clashes in Brazil Kill More Than 50."

Local media is covering each situation in different Brazilian cities. Rebellions happened simultaneously in Sao Paulo, Foz do Iguacu, Toledo, Dourados, Cascavel, and other cities. All in all, more than 80 penitentiaries are under the criminals' command.

Jail agents, criminals, and visitors -- even children -- were taken hostage. Outside the prisons, other criminals are spreading terror in the streets. On Sunday night, a bank agency was blown up by bombs planted by outlaws in a metropolitan region near Sao Paulo, the city of Taboao da Serra.

Authorities are recommending turning off cell phone towers near correctional facilities because attacks outside of prisons are being coordinated from those inside. Some say a cell phone can be more dangerous than a gun. According to Brazilian law, cell phone use is forbidden by prisoners, but enforcing this code is still a problem not solved by the jail system.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is scheduled to return from Vienna where he was participating in a meeting with other state leaders. From there, Lula told the international media that violence has been a problem in Brazil for the last 50 years.

Army forces are ready to attack these penitentiaries when governors say it's necessary. On forums and blogs, Brazilian people say they are afraid and, in some cases, desire to live under a dictatorship again.

[Aplomb]

http://greatreporter.com/mambo/content/view/262/2/

Jail riots kill up to 80 as gangs rebel

Written by Tom Phillips

Sunday, 20 June 2004

Prisoners are beheaded and burned as violence from warring drug factions spreads across Rio de Janeiro's prisons. A state of emergency has been declared in Rio de Janeiro’s prisons, after a blood bath in one jail triggered a wave of rebellions across the city. Rio’s governor, Rosinha Matheus, made the decision last week after a fortnight of violence in which at least 33 people were killed. The uprisings began on Saturday, May 29, when 14 prisoners escaped from the Benfica prison in Rio’s North Zone. In the confusion, prisoners belonging to Rio’s largest drug faction, the Comando Vermelho (Red Command), took 26 hostages as a protest against being held with members of a rival group. A 62-hour slaughter followed, in which 30 members of the rival gang – the Terceiro Comando (Third Command) – were executed. A 42-year-old prison guard was also killed. Some of the victims were reportedly beheaded or burnt to death after mock trials. A football match is also said to have broken out with the head of one dead prisoner. “It was horrific,” said Marcelo Freixo, co-ordinator of the Prison Community Council, who was allowed into the jail on Thursday. “In the gallery there were still blood stains on the walls and body parts strewn around that had obviously been burned.” Freixo, who was involved in negotiations to quell the rebellion, added: “In 13 years working in human rights I have never seen anything like it.” It is thought the Comando Vermelho executioners used shotguns looted from the prison armoury. “The prisoners had easy access to firearms. Many of those killed were killed with weapons which had been stolen from the prison guards,” Freixo said. The official death toll was this week placed at 30, though prisoners’ relatives believe the actual figure could be as high as 80. Many of the prison’s files were destroyed when the jail’s offices were ransacked. There are no other copies. “The ground floor was totally destroyed, filing cabinets and wardrobes tipped onto the floor,” said Freixo. The three-day siege ended when Rio’s governors called in Marcos Pereira da Silva, a well-connected evangelical pastor from the Assembly of God church, whose congregation includes the relatives of some of Rio’s most feared drug lords. Many believe the order actually came from Marcinho VP, an influential drug trafficker, who is currently held in the Bangu I prison. As the horrors of the Benfica massacre continued to surface last weekend, violence broke out in another three Rio jails. The most serious was in the women’s custody centre in Magé, 60km from Rio de Janeiro, where one woman was killed. On Saturday night police stormed the unit, home to 402 women, to free a guard being held hostage. Police say she was wrapped in a mattress and about to be burnt to death by prisoners. Police initially said they had used rubber bullets in the invasion. However, doctors said this was not the case after they examined the body of one victim who was shot in the head. Geraldo Moreira, president of the human rights commission of Rio’s Assembly, said: “The walls of one of the cells were full of bullet marks. According to the prisoners they [the police] went in shooting.” Freixo added: “The police operation was a catastrophe.” Prison chief Astério Pereira dos Santos denied this, telling journalists last week: “The police action was what you call legally self-defence of a third party … There was no time to wait for Special Forces.” Visits to the two prisons have been temporarily banned. Cristiane Barboso Soares, a friend of one woman held in Magé who witnessed the shooting, said: “All we know is that they’re being punished and aren’t allowed to receive any visitors. “It doesn’t even bear thinking about, what’s going on in there.” The spotlight fell on Brazil’s prisons in 1992 when 111 inmates died during riots in São Paulo’s Carandiru jail. Only last month 14 convicts were killed in a prison in the Amazon state of Rondônia. Freixo said: “There’s no investment and no public policy. In Rio, as in the rest of Brazil, the best the authorities can hope for is that there are no rebellions or breakouts.” In Rio’s jails, problems of corruption, overcrowding and underinvestment are made worse by the presence of warring drug factions. State prison secretary Astério Pereira dos Santos admitted last week: “The prisons here are all potential gunpowder kegs.” The jails are dominated by two main drug faction: the Comando Vermelho and the Terceiro Comando, which also control Rio’s estimated 600 favelas, or slums. In many of Rio’s prisons the two groups are mixed, a combination that often results in bloodshed. During the rebellion in Benfica a placard was slung from one cell window demanding the transfer of enemy prisoners (often referred to as “alemãos” or Germans). It read: “The Comando Vermelho is pure and Christian. We will not accept mixture in any prison unit.” Authorities last week conceded the need to separate such groups. In the notorious prison complex of Bangu I, where prisoners had threatened to revolt, iron walls are to be built separating the gangs. Rio’s authorities have been quick to respond, announcing an investment of R$160 million (£28m) in the ailing prison system, including the construction of six new jails. But many are pointing the finger at governor Rosinha Matheus and prison chief Astério Pereira dos Santos for not anticipating the riots. One newspaper published a front-page photo of Matheus and her husband, Rio’s security minister Anthony Garotinho, with the names of 19 of the Benfica victims printed on their backs. Marcelo Freixo also believes Rio’s governors were at fault. “It was a tragedy foretold. We visited the prison on May 11 and prepared a report warning that this would happen, but nothing was done,” he lamented. The human rights activist says Pereira dos Santos declined to meet with him. The riots have added to a growing sense of insecurity in an increasingly violent Rio de Janeiro. The city’s failure in May to reach the shortlist to host the 2012 Olympic games was widely blamed on poor security. A month before, 13 people were killed when drug traffickers invaded Rio’s largest favela, Rocinha, in the chic South Zone. At the time newspaper headlines were quick to compare Rio’s drug wars to the war in Iraq. After weeks of violence in the city’s prisons, parallels are being drawn again. “We think what’s happening in Abu Ghraib is bad,” said Leonel Kaz, a historian from Rio’s Catholic University. “But the reality is that much worse is going on right under our noses.”

[Aplomb]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0514/brazil.html

Riots break out in Brazilian jails

Sunday, 14 May 2006 22:57
Riots have broken out in more than 20 prisons in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo after a wave of violent attacks that left at least 30 people dead, most of them police officers.


Across Sao Paulo inmates took as many as 100 people hostage.


The Authorities have blamed the unrest on a criminal gang called the PCC, a notorious crime faction whose leaders are in prison.




They are thought to have ordered a series of co-coordinated attacks on police across the state, as a form of reprisal, after some 700 PCC prisoners were moved to a maximum security jail.

The assailants used machine guns and grenades in more than 50 attacks on police stations and vehicles, killing officers, off duty prison guards and civilians.

[Aplomb]

Here's the latest...

Brazilian Police Get Out in Force and Arrest Over 2,500

Written by José Wilson Miranda Friday, 15 June 2007

In a little more than 10 hours - from 6 am to 5 pm - this Thursday, June 14, the Civilian police of São Paulo, Brazil, arrested 2,532 people, among them over 1,400 who were wanted by the courts, common criminals and police criminals. 160 of them were minors.

Operation Strike took place simultaneously in 645 municipalities. Together with the criminals authorities also seized 180 weapons, 234 lbs of drugs, over 250 vehicles and 2,967 illegal slot machines. Eleven bingo places had their doors shut down.


Following what seems to be a new trend, the police action got an English name: Strike. The operation's final data were released at the end of the day by São Paulo Civilian Police's chief, Mário Jordão Toledo Leme.


Leme indicated that at least 1,400 of those arrested will be kept in jail for an unspecified time. His men carried out over 1230 search and seizure warrants.


The operation command monitored and controlled everything from the Civilian Police's situation room in downtown São Paulo, where the action was being broadcast in two big screens.


About 20 police chiefs using notebooks kept in touch with police districts across the state via radio.


A gang of about a dozen private detectives was nabbed charged with doing wiretapping without a Justice warrant. "They had a giant bugging scheme throughout the state of São Paulo," explained the police chief.


The police was celebrating the capture of a gang whose specialty was to steal car fuel in the interior of the state. Among the policemen detained there were a fire department soldier, a corporal from the military police air division and a bank guard.


While, yesterday, was the day of reckoning, Operation Strike started April 25 as a broad action against a wide variety of gangs including those specialized in bank robbery, car theft, drug trafficking, cargo stealing.
He promised that São Paulo will keep doing this kind of giant operation that nabs hundreds of criminals and gets ample exposition in the media. For him one of the positive factor of this kind of action is the motivation of the police force.


"The corporation that gets together gets also motivated. We conduct a big intelligence operation. Everybody gets involved and is motivated. In April, during a similar operation, the population came to the policemen to hug them."


According to authorities, 18,217 civilian policemen, about 800 criminal experts from the Crime Institute, plus scores of military policemen took part in Operation Strike. They descended upon auto part stores, airports, ports, hotels and restaurants in a concerted effort. They were also prepared to release people being kept as hostages.

[Malsua]

That place is a mess. sheesh

[Ryan Ruck]

I think it is our duty as Americans to offer asylum to all the supermodel quality Brazilian women for their safety.

Now, that's one amnesty I could get behind!