Good morning! This week, we are covering a Hollywood-esque prison break by Brazil’s deadliest drug gang. The government’s latest strategy to raise money. How Brazilians perceive public servants. (This newsletter is for premium and standard subscribers only. Become one now!)
Brazil’s main drug cartel pulls spectacular prison break in Paraguay
In the early hours of Sunday, 75 inmates fled a prison in Pedro Juan Caballero, a Paraguayan city located at the Brazilian border. Most prisoners are members of the First Command of the Capital (PCC), Brazil’s most powerful and farthest-reaching drug gang. The Brazilian Justice Ministry sent 200 troops to reinforce security at the border and prevent the criminals from entering the country. “If they do,” tweeted Justice Minister Sergio Moro, “they get a one-way ticket to [a] federal prison.”
The problem. Pedro Juan Caballero is separated from the Brazilian city of Ponta Porã by nothing more than an ordinary road—making it a highly porous border.
Why it matters. The Pedro Juan Caballero-Ponta Porã region is key to PCC’s international drug trade. It is the entry point of the so-called “hillbilly route” of cocaine, where drugs from Bolivia and Peru cross into the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul...