Brazil’s PCC has become a multinational criminal enterprise

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 always claimed that it was a matter of self-defense, although the prisoners didn’t have firearms, and many bodies were found with bullet wounds in the back of their heads, in classic execution-style.

As their symbol, the founders of the PCC chose the yin-yang, to represent the balance between evil and wisdom.

How Brazil was introduced to the PCC

Few Brazilians knew about the group’s existence until May 12, 2006, when the PCC staged a series of attacks against police forces. The conditions for the confrontation were created one week prior, when São Paulo’s penitentiary administration discovered PCC plans for rebellions in dozens of state prisons.

On May 11, the state issued an order to transfer 765 inmates – including the PCC’s alleged leader – to a maximum-security prison. Following this transfer, riots broke out in 74 different facilities, and over 100 people were taken as hostages. It demonstrated the organization’s undeniable powers of communication and mobilization.

On the following day, violent attacks were carried out outside of prisons, as 59 police officers were murdered in a total of 293 strikes. A new wave of attacks would come two months later. This time, the targets were no longer restricted to police stations. Bank branches and supermarkets were also attacked.

Panic spread, as did rumors of a curfew imposed by the PCC. Residents were...