The First Command of the Capital (PCC) was born on August 31, 1993. The organization, which would later become Brazil’s largest criminal empire, was created inside a penitentiary in Taubaté, a city close to São Paulo, by eight inmates. Their goal was to denounce what they saw as “oppression” by the prison system.
They also wanted to avenge the prisoners killed during the Carandiru massacre, the biggest in Brazil’s prison system. Following a riot on October 2, 1992, 111 inmates were slaughtered over the span of half an hour by police agents at São Paulo’s Carandiru prison. The police have...
