Word: pcc
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...lying face upward," says Drauzio Varella, "and when I turned him over, his head dangled. He had been almost decapitated. The guard told me this was the mark of [a gang called] the Primeiro Comando da Capital (First Command of the Capital)." Drauzio Varella had never heard of the pcc, but, he says, "this was just the first of many corpses marked in this way." Life behind bars, as described by the doctor in his bestselling memoir turned movie, Estação Carandiru, is defined by such brutal acts. With too few guards to keep order, prisoners establish their...
They have nicknames like cartoon characters. But Marcola, Starfruit and Macarroni - the men Brazilian authorities believe ordered the most shocking weekend of violence in Sao Paulo's history - are no laughing matter. They're the mafiosi who run the First Command of the Capital (PCC), Sao Paulo's predominant organized crime faction. And now they've proved they are shrewd, ruthless and powerful enough to bring a place like Sao Paulo, Brazil's most important state and South America's largest city, to its knees with just a phone call from their jail cells. Just as important, the five...
...mayhem in Sao Paulo set an astonishing new benchmark. It erupted last week after authorities transferred 756 gang-affiliated prisoners in an attempt to thwart what they believed would be a state-wide prison rebellion on the eve of Mother's Day, when family visits often provoke unrest. The PCC's reaction was swift. On Thursday night, bandits armed with grenades and machine guns attacked police stations and left five officers dead. Over the weekend they stepped up their attacks with a series of bombings, ambushes and drive-by shootings that took the death toll to 52. And on Sunday...
...social conditions that have bred the gang violence. His opponent in the upcoming October election, former Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin, has boasted the state had triumphed over organized crime. The Sao Paulo crisis is likely to shine the spotlight on both their records."You can't say the PCC want to benefit one candidate or another, but there 's no doubt that they are smart and well-informed and that they know authorities are more vulnerable in an election year," said Bruno Paes Manso, an expert on the PCC and author of the book The X Man: A Look...
...Whatever action is taken, it is unlikely that the PCC will quietly fade away. The group runs most of Sao Paulo's 109 jails and will continue to challenge the state unless they are allowed to retain some control over an empire that includes drug trafficking, armed robbery and kidnapping, said Renato Simoes, a human rights expert who has followed the rise of the group. "I think it's a power struggle," said Simoes, a Sao Paulo state congressman who serves on the state's Human Rights Commission. Whatever happens, Paulistas are afraid, and with good reason. Marcola, Macaroni...