Global InformationComando Vermelho information
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 The letters "CV" sprayed on a wall in Salvador, Brazil, representing the organization | |
| Founded | 1979 |
|---|---|
| Founding location | Candido Mendes Prison, Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Territory |
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| Leader(s) |
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| Activities | Murder, drug trafficking, bribery, loan sharking, arms trafficking, assault, rioting, money laundering, hijacking, fraud, and bank robbery[2] |
| Allies | Primeiro Grupo Catarinense, Paraguayan crime groups, Comando da Paz, Bala na Cara, Sindicato do Crime do Rio Grande do Norte, Okaida, Comando Revolucionário Brasileiro da Criminalidade, Primeiro Comando de Vitória |
| Rivals | Primeiro Comando da Capital,[3] Terceiro Comando, Terceiro Comando Puro, Amigos dos Amigos, Brazilian police militias, Família do Norte, Guardiões do Estado |
Comando Vermelho (Portuguese: [koˈmɐ̃du veʁˈmeʎu], Red Command or Red Commando), also known as CV, is a Brazilian criminal organization engaged primarily in drug trafficking, arms trafficking, protection racketeering, kidnapping-for-ransom, hijacking of armored trucks, loansharking, irregular warfare, narco-terrorism, and turf wars against rival criminal organizations, such as Primeiro Comando da Capital and Terceiro Comando Puro.[2] The gang formed in 1979 out of a prison alliance between common criminals and leftist guerrillas who were imprisoned together at Cândido Mendes, a maximum-security prison on the island of Ilha Grande.[4] The prisoners formed the alliance to protect themselves from prison violence and guard-inflicted brutality; as the group coalesced, the common criminals were infused with leftist social justice ideals by the guerrillas.[4] In 1979, prison officials labeled the alliance "Comando Vermelho", a name which the prisoners eventually co-opted as their own.[5] In the 1980s, the gang expanded beyond Ilha Grande into other prisons and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and became involved in the rapidly growing cocaine industry. Meanwhile, Brazil's shift towards democracy and the eventual end of the military dictatorship in 1985 allowed the leftist guerrillas to re-enter society; thus, the CV largely abandoned its left-wing ideology.[6]
The cocaine trade brought the CV massive profits and growth; by the end of 1985 the gang controlled as much as 70% of the drug trade in Rio de Janeiro's favelas.[7] During this period, the CV established trading relationships with Colombian cartels. However, the group's decentralized leadership structure and disputes over profits prompted infighting, causing splinter groups such as the Terceiro Comando and Amigos dos Amigos to emerge. Conflicts with these splinter groups, as well as fierce resistance to state crackdowns on their operations, drove a sharp uptick in violence in Rio and throughout Brazil throughout the late 1980s and into the 2000s.[8]
Violence continued to escalate until 2008, when the state government implemented a new policy to mitigate violent crime, called Pacification, which used new permanent proximity-policing units (Unidade de Policia Pacificadora, or UPPs) to "maintain state control and provide social order" in favelas. Pacification proved initially successful; a sharp decline in violence between the state and the CV followed after implementation.[9]
However, in 2013, Pacification efforts eroded, and widespread violent conflict between the CV and state forces quickly returned.[9] Additionally, in 2016, a 20-year-old truce between the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), a rival criminal organization based in São Paulo, and the CV broke down, sparking an outbreak in violent clashes between the two groups[10]
Today, while not as powerful as at its peak, the CV remains a significant presence in Rio and throughout Brazil; recent estimates suggest the group is the second-largest criminal organization in Brazil behind the PCC.[11] InSight Crime reports the CV may boast as many as 30,000 members throughout Brazil.[12] The gang continues to engage in drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and turf wars with rival gangs. Notably, in recent years a struggle has intensified between the CV, the PCC, and other rival gangs over control of trade routes and territory in the Amazon region.[13]
- ^ "Os donos do crime: Marcola, Beira-Mar e Zé Roberto da Compensa". Istoé. 6 January 2017. Archived from the original on 2023-03-22. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
- ^ a b Conflict Encyclopedia, Brazil, non-state conflict, Comando Vermelho – Terceiro Comando Archived 2019-10-16 at the Wayback Machine from Uppsala Conflict Data Program accessed 21 December 2013
- ^ Fonseca, Pedro; Brooks, Brad (6 January 2017). "Brazil gang kills 31, many hacked to death, as prison violence explodes". Reuters. Archived from the original on 7 January 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ a b Grillo, Ioan (12 January 2017). Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-4088-4591-2. OCLC 982214269. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
- ^ Grillo, Ioan (12 January 2017). Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 978-1-4088-4591-2. OCLC 982214269. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
- ^ Grillo, Ioan (12 January 2017). Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. pp. 64, 68. ISBN 978-1-4088-4591-2. OCLC 982214269. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
- ^ Penglase, B. (2008-06-01). "The Bastard Child of the Dictatorship:: The Comando Vermelho and the Birth of "Narco-culture" in Rio de Janeiro". Luso-Brazilian Review. 45 (1): 128. doi:10.1353/lbr.0.0001. ISSN 0024-7413. S2CID 145404286. Archived from the original on 2024-04-21. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ Jański, Kamil (2022-06-07). "Primeiro Comando da Capital and Comando Vermelho: Genesis, Evolution and Their Impact through Narco-culture". Ad Americam. 23: 18–19. doi:10.12797/AdAmericam.23.2022.23.01. ISSN 2449-8661. S2CID 249480164. Archived from the original on 2023-04-26. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ a b Lessing, Benjamin. Making peace in drug wars : crackdowns and cartels in Latin America. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-108-18583-7. OCLC 1055867117. Archived from the original on 2024-04-21. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ Blair, Laurence (2022-06-23). "'The PCC are after me': the drug cartel with Paraguay in its clutches". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2022-07-02. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "The Evolution of the Most Lethal Criminal Organization in Brazil—the PCC". PRISM | National Defense University. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "Red Command". InSight Crime. 2017-03-27. Archived from the original on 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "Tussle for the Amazon: New Frontiers in Brazil's Organized Crime Landscape". Diálogo Américas. 2022-11-16. Archived from the original on 2023-04-27. Retrieved 2023-04-27.