Prison murders illustrate a spike in gang killings in Brazil’s Amazon

As The Brazilian Report recently published in our Daily Briefing, the country’s most recent violence figures have shown a worrying increase in murder rates in the North and Northeast regions. While levels rose 24 percent nationwide between 2007 and 2017, the increase in northern and northeastern states was a staggering 68 percent.

The figures come from the Violence Map study, a yearly research project carried out by Brazil’s Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) and the Brazilian Forum for Public Safety (FBSP). The latest study dovetailed with events one week previously, when 55 inmates were murdered during a series of prison riots outside of Manaus, the largest city in Brazil’s North region.

In 2017, which is the latest year analyzed by the Violence Map, a 17-hour riot in a state penitentiary left 56 dead.

On Sunday, May 26, during visitation hours at the Anísio Jobim Penitentiary Complex (Compaj), a fight broke out which resulted in 15 inmates being murdered. Some were choked to death, others were stabbed with toothbrushes fashioned into sharp weapons

The following day, another 40 prisoners were killed across five detention facilities in the Manaus surrounding area, including a further four at Compaj. The causes of death were the same: stabbing, strangulation, and choking with bedsheets.

Indications show that the riots and killings were sparked by a conflict within one of the region’s leading drugs gangs, the Família do Norte (Family of the North)—or FDN, for short.

The origins of the Amazonian drug war

In order to properly understand the murders of May and the riots in 2017, we must...