Sao Paulo - Brazil - illegal drug dealers gangs and chaos

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SouthAmerica

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May 16, 2006

SouthAmerica: Sao Paulo, Brazil is in the middle of a gang war since last Friday and more than 80 people have died in the conflict so far

The drug gangs are causing havoc and panic in the city of Sao Paulo.

All of this mess started when the government moved two drug dealers in the middle of the night to an undisclosed location to disconnect these guys from their illegal drug empires.

In retaliation these criminals are cause chaos in the city of Sao Paulo – they burned dozens of buses and caused schools to close and commerce to close early because of the safety of employees.

I can’t believe that my town is in a state of civil war.

The ironic thing is that I know how to solve this illegal drug problem in Brazil and I came to my conclusion after extensively studying the illegal drug problem here in the United States when I did research for one of my books.

The answer to defeat the drug trade it is found in “Economic Theory” - and not in guns, helicopters and other regular warfare tactics and strategies.



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“Polícia admite que está "em guerra" contra o PCC e monta megaoperação de combate”
A Folha de Sao Paulo – May 16, 2006

No terceiro dia consecutivo de ataques criminosos da facção PCC em São Paulo, o comandante-geral da PM, coronel Elizeu Eclair Teixeira Borges, admitiu que o Estado "está em guerra".

Desde sexta-feira à noite foram registrados mais de 180 ataques contra forças de segurança. Mais de 80 pessoas morreram. Dezenas de ônibus foram incendiados. Escolas, empresas e lojas fecharam mais cedo.


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May 16, 2006

SouthAmerica: The more gang members they get ride off the better it is for the rest of the Brazilian population. They should do a major clean up not only in Sao Paulo but also in Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian authorities can’t let these criminals get away with this kind of criminal behavior – the only way to deal with them is by killing as many of these criminal gang members as possible.

We spoke on Sunday with members of my family who live in Sao Paulo and they told us that they were afraid of what was going on and that the gangs were going around completely out of control in Sao Paulo on their crime spree.



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“Brazil Cops Kill 33 Suspected Gang Members”
By VIVIAN SEQUERA, Associated Press Writer
AP – Associated Press – May 16, 2006


SAO PAULO, Brazil - Police struck back Tuesday at gangs that rampaged through South America's largest city, killing 33 suspected gang members in less than 24 hours and frisking motorists at roadblocks while reporting only one death of their own. At least 133 people -- including 40 police officers -- have been killed since Friday night, when a prison transfer of gang leaders sparked attacks on police stations, courts, city buses and other symbols of government authority.

But while gang attacks fell off sharply in Sao Paulo on Tuesday, the death toll within their ranks rose dramatically.

Officers "acted within the law, but that doesn't mean we have to let them humiliate us," Marco Antonio Desgualdo, a top Sao Paulo state law enforcement official, told reporters. He did not give specifics about the killings.

Separately, prison officials said the bodies of 18 inmates were found after police retook control of dozens of jails where prisoners rioted at the same time that gang members attacked officers across Sao Paulo.

Details of how they died were not immediately disclosed. Inmates periodically use Brazilian prison uprisings to settle scores.

The overall five-day death toll stood at 71 suspected criminals, 40 police officers and jail guards, the 18 prison inmates and four civilians caught in the crossfire.

The crime spree showed the strength of organized crime in the financial and industrial heart of Brazil, and it sent fear rippling through the metropolis of 18 million.

With guns drawn, plainclothes police in a Sao Paulo suburb stopped and frisked motorists in a hunt for more gang members.

Police in Osasco, 10 miles from the center of Sao Paulo, were targeting motorcyclists with passengers for spot checks after one of their own was shot and killed by a gunman on the back of a bike, said Officer Vladimir Storel. The dead officer was the only policeman killed this year in the suburb of 1 million.

"We're only out here because of the attacks," said Storel, surrounded by fellow policemen wielding pistols, shotguns and Uzi submachine guns.

They patted down riders and checked IDs against a list of suspected gang members.

Across Sao Paulo, police were redeployed in greater numbers to halt the attacks, and authorities said at least 115 people had been arrested since Friday night.

But many citizens said the ferocity of the First Capital Command gang, or PCC, made them doubt law enforcement will ever solve the gang problem.

Some Sao Paulo residents said they now fear being seen near police officers who could be targeted by attackers.

"Now you get scared when you pass police," said bank manager Cleide Boeing, 45. "I trying to stay away from the police now."

Using machine guns and grenades, gang members attacked dozens of police installations, burned scores of buses and vandalized 15 bank branches over the weekend. Inmates took over 73 prisons and held more than 200 guards hostage.

Gang attacks finally ebbed Tuesday morning, but Sao Paulo residents said they were still stunned.

"It's a civil war," said Manuela Nascimento, a 24-year-old newsstand worker. "Now I leave my house scared and go to work scared."

In other South American countries like Venezuela, Peru and Paraguay, organized crime gangs keep a low profile as they smuggle drugs abroad.

The PCC, however, has focused on the booming local drug trade in Sao Paulo, where recruits are easy to find in crime-ridden slums.

The violence was triggered Thursday by an attempt to isolate the gang leaders — who control many of city's teeming, notoriously corrupt prisons — by transferring eight to a high-security facility.

The gang leaders reportedly used cell phones to order the attacks.

Sao Paulo's two leading newspapers reported Tuesday that authorities cut a deal with the gang to stop the attacks — claims Desgualdo strongly denied. He said strong police action had stifled the criminal attacks.

But crime experts said such a deal sounded plausible, given the growing strength of the gang, which was formed in a prison in 1993 and expanded to between 10,000 and 30,000 members as Brazil became the second-largest cocaine-consuming nation after the United States.

"I am sure that despite official denials, authorities negotiated an end to the uprisings and attacks," said Walter Fanganiello Maierovitch, Brazil's former drug czar.

Sao Paulo appeared to be returning to normal Tuesday morning. There were only a few reported attacks Monday night and Tuesday, compared to 181 over the previous four days.

Bus service was fully restored after panicked drivers stayed home Monday over fears they might be attacked, leaving 2.9 million people scrambling to find a way to work.

At the roadblock in Osasco, housewife and law school student Marcia Barros waited patiently with her pink motorcycle helmet in hand as police frisked her husband against a wall.

"There's no way of knowing what's going to happen now, and that's what scares us," said Barros, 33.
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Associated Press Writers Alan Clendenning, Stan Lehman and Alexander V. Ragir contributed to this report.


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Risktaker: southamerica...I guess you now have something else to worry about besides your usual critiquing of US.


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May 16, 2006

SouthAmerica: Reply to Risktaker

You feel that way because you are an American and you must take things on a personal basis when someone from Brazil is criticizing any thing related to the United States.

But if you had the chance to read many of my articles then you would know that I also criticize on a regular basis what is going on in Brazil. As a matter of fact I receive more emails and letters to the editor from people from Brazil angry about what I write than from people from the United States.


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Quote from southamerica:

As a matter of fact I receive more emails and letters to the editor from people from Brazil angry about what I write than from people from the United States.
More...
I understand. Too many entrepreneurs and capitalists in Brazil. What a shame.:D

Move to Venezuala. You'll get less hate mail there.
 
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Sam123: Move to Venezuela. You'll get less hate mail there.


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May 17, 2006

SouthAmerica: I don’t think so.

I don’t believe on land expropriations by the government.

As a Brazilian I have the right to write about anything that I desire. In Brazil we have free speech.

But I don’t like what is happening in the US today regarding free speech – the Bush administration is trying to intimidate the American journalists regarding what they write when they print the dirty that is going on inside of the Bush administration.

The American mainstream media should fight-back and don’t let these guys get away with anything - we are not talking about a bunch of Enlightened People here - we are talking about a bunch of Morons.


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Jem: I find it interesting that SA advocates ultra vires death squads which by definition violate international laws and conventions. (you said yourself civil liberities are ignored). Yet, SA has issues with the United States acting in conjunction with other countries and sometimes the UN to eliminate terrorist and nuclear threats. Perhaps the world is not so binary afterall. I think it may be time to reconsider your bombastic essays.


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May 17, 2006

SouthAmerica: The drug trade developed in Brazil only since the late 1970’s and then they became a cancer in Brazil in the last 15 years.

These gangs are made of ruthless criminals and they would not think twice before they would kill you and your entire family. We are not talking about good citizens here we are talking about ferocious animals completely out of control.

I just saw for the second time a Brazilian movie called: “City of God.” They are showing this movie on cable, but you also can rent the video or dvd on your local video store. After you see this movie then you will understand what I am talking about. You can check the video in the following website:

http://www.miramax.com/cityofgod/


The Brazilian population did not say much about the death squadron in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s because the crime rate went down, way down during that time. The criminals started thinking twice before they did anything because they knew that they would pay the price with their lives.

Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were much safe places to live and to visit than today.


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Jem: I find it interesting that SA advocates ultra vires death squads which by definition violate international laws and conventions. (you said yourself civil liberities are ignored).


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SouthAmerica: These drug gangs don’t follow any laws domestic or international.
International law and conventions don’t apply when dealing with these animals.


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Rearden Metal: Well sure, I suppose the government could go around assassinating its own citizens... or how about just ending prohibition instead? Decriminalize all victimless activity, and see how fast the 'drug-crime' evaporates...


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SouthAmerica: I agree 100 percent with you.

That is what I mean when I said that the only way to defeat the drug trade it is with “Economic Theory” and not with guns and violence.

How do you do that?

It is very simple – by taking away every last penny of profit from the drug trade and you would see the entire drug trade collapsing in no time.

Brazil should legalize all kinds of drugs and flood the market with all these drugs.

When you take away the profit incentive from the entire drug system – there is no reason for anyone to push drugs since there is no profit to be made.

The entire drug distribution system would collapse in no time – putting out of business outlaw guerrilla groups, gangsters, and so on.

The answer it is “NO”. The number of people in the population that takes drugs would increase.

Today in the United States all kinds of drugs are readily available for any kid that desires to try these illegal drugs. It is easier for any kid in the US to buy drugs than to buy alcoholic beverages.

The people who take drugs today they would continue taking these drugs, and these people are the hardcore people that would take drugs it does not matter what.

In the last 30 years the United States has been fighting a war on drugs, but if you look to what has happened the amount of drugs that were able to get inside the United States to meet this drug demand it is a straight line.

Today there is as much illegal drugs inside the United States as you want - and the drug dealers have no problem in meeting the US market demand.

The number of people in prison because of this stupid war on illegal drugs it is another story – since over 1 million people are in prison because of this foolish war on drugs in the United States.

Why the drugs were always available to meet the market demand in the United States during all this time?

Profits, lots of profits – Enough profits for the people to take any risk they had to take to meet the market demand. We are talking about billions and billions of US dollars in profits.

All the US and Brazil has to do it is to legalize all these illegal drugs – and make it available to the public at a price that it is below the cost of production. Take every single penny of profit from the entire drug system and you would see the entire drug trade die a very fast death.

No profit – No illegal drug trade - and another benefit is that you put all these people out of business.

You take the profit away from that business and that business collapses in no time.

You win the war against illegal drugs with economic theory as described above and not with guns and violence.


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SouthAmerica: These drug gangs don’t follow any laws domestic or international.
International law and conventions don’t apply when dealing with these animals.

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Interesting conclusion. Why shouldn't the same logic apply to terrorists?

The dirty secret is that "Dirty Wars" work. Columbia also took its country back from the cartels by using paramilitary death squads.
 
Quote from southamerica:

You feel that way because you are an American and you must take things on a personal basis when someone from Brazil is criticizing any thing related to the United States.
More...

No, he feels that way because you continually spam this discussion board with accusations and rants against the US and with an obsessive zeal that borders on mental illness.

The fact that you dismiss his comment solely on the basis of his citizenship is but another symptom of your condition.
 
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