On the Edge

15 May 2006



Brazil Prison Riots Challenge the State’s Legitimacy

Prison riots are rare and often are the result of poor administration of the institution more than anything else; they challenge only the warden. In Brazil right now, though, there are riots in so many prisons in the state of São Paulo that the very legitimacy of the state is at stake. So far, the federal government hasn’t acted, since the state governor says he can handle it. Maybe.

According to numerous sources, the violence started Friday night, and by this morning, there were uprisings in 64 different prisons around a state with 74 in total, and there have been attacks outside the prison walls on the police and other authority entities such as banks. Over 70 are dead, and the prisoners have taken hostages, some of whom are family members who turned up to show “solidarity.” Obviously, this is a conspiracy.

The Sao Paulo State Public Safety Department’s spokesman Enio Lucciola said the rebellion is “obviously the work of the PCC,” the Primeiro Comando da Capital, or the First Capital Command. Wikipedia says this group was started at Taubate Penitentiary in São Paulo in 1993. Since then, it has become, says CNN, “a major criminal enterprise, conducting such actions as bank robbery, drug trafficking, kidnapping and arms trafficking.”

The spark that ignited this revolt was the decision to move many of PCC’s top men into more isolated and tougher institutions. There are two tiers of prison in Brazil, one for the college-educated and one for the others, and the uprisings are in the latter. This isn’t the first time, though, that PCC has attacked the authorities. Reuters reported, “During a 10-day period in November 2003, the PCC attacked more than 50 police stations with machine guns, homemade bombs, shotguns and pistols, killing three officers and injuring 12. Those attacks apparently were planned by jailed PCC leaders trying to pressure authorities to improve prison conditions.” The BBC says it did something similar in 2001.

This is where the nexus of drug prohibition, failed economic policies and the surplus weapons market come together. Brazil has an appalling income inequality, the city of São Paulo has an estimated population of 20 million (most of whom are very poor), and the city is the main South American transit point for cocaine out of the Andes. The blurring of the line between gang members and guerrillas is bringing the latter out of the hills and into the city streets. This is not going to end well; more than likely, it isn't going to end at all.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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