by Heidi Cerneka

The PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital- First Command of the Capital) was born in a time when the State was totally absent as administrator of the prisons, torture was rampant (much more so than even today), and the inmates began to organize, to fight for their rights. They organized around the right to visits with their families, a justice system that was more effective and less slow, digestible food and more. They significantly reduced the violence within the prisons. This they did by laying down the law any fight had to be resolved with authorization by the local PCC "captain" or "pilot" as they call them.

Through time, they have engaged in much more drug trafficking and in centralizing control and power. They have control of most of the prisons in São Paulo. They have also especially infiltrated into poorer neighborhoods. They pay for the buses for family members that have to travel far to visit their loved ones in prison. They sometimes provide defense lawyers for their participants. They defend to the death anyone who has declared himself or herself a member. They also have no pity about sentencing anyone to death who betrays them or owes them money.

The State, according to many prison employees that we know and even some directors, no longer controls the prisons. The PCC does. Prison directors have been known to make implicit or explicit agreements with the leaders of the PCC, that they’ll let them do whatever they want on the inside, as long as no riots occur in that particular prison.

Unfortunately, the best place to buy drugs in the state of São Paulo is inside the prisons. One can purchase alcohol, drugs, arms and cell phones in the prisons, if one has enough money or connections. According to inmates, most of these products enter the prison in the hands of corrupt and greedy guards. According to the prison system, most of it enters through family members on visiting day. However, family members are literally strip searched before entering. Recently, a machine gun was confiscated at the end of a rebellion. It is hard to imagine a family member managing to sneak in a machine gun, without the assistance of some guard somewhere.

The government was extremely slow to admit to the existence of this strong and growing force within the prisons. In the meantime, the PCC became extremely organized, especially with access to illegal cell phones in most of the prisons. Highly intricate telephone "switchboards" have been set up that connect one cell phone from one prison to another, or can even connect more than two people into a phone call. Most of these phones have been cloned from legitimate cell phones and thus are hard to trace.

Five years ago, a "mega-rebellion" was set off, where more than 20 prisons had riots on the same day across the state. For quite some time, there have been rumblings of another mega-rebellion in the planning. Specifically, word came down that this was going to happen on Mother’s Day. It is a visiting day in many prisons--just the added number of people in the prisons diminishes security and adds a bit of chaos to the day. So, the head of prisons for the state of São Paulo, with authorization from the governor, decided to select the 700+ "leaders" of the PCC throughout the state and isolate them, transferring all of them to a specific maximum security prison, recently repaired after a rebellion in 2005.

They locked down all of the prisons on Wednesday, conducted a search of each of them, and separated out the 700 men and transferred them. On Friday morning, when they released the inmates to the prison yard, the riots began, as did the attacks on police in the streets of São Paulo.

The governor of Sao Paulo has recently declared his candidacy for presidency (and had to step down from his post, as required by the law). What we have heard continuously is that the PCC detests Geraldo Alckmin (the former governor turned presidential candidate) and his government, and has set out to destabilize his government. This is an election year.

One can question, if the leaders are all isolated, who is leading this war that has been going on for three days now? Are they truly isolated? Have new leaders stepped up to bat? Did they leave specific orders behind, in case something happened to them? The PCC is extremely organized and extremely hierarchical. The leaders give the orders and the others obey. There is much speculation that the deaths and attacks in the streets of São Paulo are probably carried out by former inmates who built up drug debts in prison, and when they walk out the door, already have their orders of what they are going to do.

Up until midnight on Sunday night, 71 prison units have rioted, although 25 riots have already been controlled. Fivety-five people have died during this whole situation, most of them members of the police force, assassinated in the streets or at police posts. Between deaths of inmates in the prisons and people in the streets suspected of participating in attacks on police, another 15 people have died since Friday. Over 115 attacks have occurred throughout the state, mostly in relation to police and police posts, although 20 city buses have been burned and a bank was bombed on Sunday evening.

The Prison Pastoral and other groups that defend the rights of all human beings, take a very clear stand that we will never tolerate violence, and that this mass destruction and murders are absolutely repugnant to us.

While their actions are just wrong, and cannot be justified in any way, the State also has to recognize its complicity in the violence. A State that does not invest in its schools in the poorer neighborhoods, does not invest in more jobs and training for jobs, does not invest in health care for the uninsured, is perpetrating institutional violence at a level of which the full impact is totally immeasurable. A State which sentences a reporter to 19 years in prison for the cold blooded murder of his ex-girlfriend, but allows him to stay home while he awaits the result of his appeal (which will take a minimum of one year to resolve), while it sentences hundreds and hundreds of people to prison because they have shoplifted, will never have credibility or authority in front of its population. A State which insists that "everything is under control" even as the number of deaths increases and the violence in the streets does not abate, is in extreme denial, and cannot be trusted by its constituents.

What we most need at this moment are clear heads, a strong position in relation to the current situation and in defense of life and dignity, and lots of prayer!

The Prison Pastoral of São Paulo, together with the Instituto Terra, Trabalho e Cidadania (Institute of Land, Work and Citizenship) make this public declaration about the tragic wave of violence that has taken over the state of São Paulo this weekend and until this moment, caused more than 60 deaths.

We vehemently repudiate these heinous acts that have taken control of the State, in attacks against police and in riots in more than 70 prison units within the state, that affect state employees and the families of people in prison.

We deeply lament the lives lost and are in solidarity with the victims and their families. Based in our history of the absolute defense of life, we want to emphasize that we will never support any act of violence, be that practiced by criminals or by state and government employees.

We also state our concern about the possibility of a violent response by state authorities. We refuse to accept this current reality that only poor people and poverty are criminalized in this State. These acts of violence cause horror because they are visible and lives are taken, however, we recognize that they are the result of invisible and selective institutional violence. They are also the result of a feeling of injustice and the lack of credibility of a State that severely punishes a 79 year old homemaker, terminally ill with cancer, (sentenced to four years in prison as a first time offender) and allows others sentenced of more heinous crimes, to go unpunished or complete their sentences at home. We do not argue the possibility of allowing people, when appropriate, to await their appeal in liberty; we simply argue the right for all who qualify to have this benefit, not just those with expensive lawyers or titles after their names.

These deaths demonstrate how useless it is to imagine that simply locking people up as a punishment will reduce violence. We reiterate the absolute necessity of investment in public policies that prevent exclusion of poor and marginalized people, and advocate for inclusion that will create a more just and equal society through education, jobs, dignified treatment and a justice system that is more agile for all of society, including those who are incarcerated.

Prison Pastoral of São Paulo

Instituto Terra, Trabalho e Cidadania

Last Friday, May 12, Greenpeace blocked Cargill's (a multinational involved in the food industry) docks in Santarem, Para in order to prevent the shipping of soy grown in the Amazon region of the state. The activities of the company stopped for 3 1/2 hours. The soy, exported to Europe for animal feed, is cultivated in a deforested area of the Amazon forest.

According to Greenpeace, five members climbed up the bridges of the docks where they remained until they were violently forced down by workers of the multinational. Three of the five were injured one activist from the US fell from the bridge while holding a banner which said, "Cargill Out," another was shot at in the water, and a German photographer was hit in the chest by bottle rocket. Twelve members of the organization were detained by the Federal Police.

Nearly 40 soy farmers were threatening the activists. One group of farmers boarded the Greenpeace ship Artic Sunrise. Still another group was throwing rocks, sticks, setting off fireworks in the direction of the ship, and spray painted the symbol of Greenpeace. The Federal Police finally dispersed the group.

"US companies like Cargill are devouring the Amazon by planting soy. Meat fed with this soy ends up on the shelves of supermarkets and fast food restaurants in Europe and other countries. Our volunteers will continue to protest peacefully to protect the most precious rain forest in the world, the same which is now being destroyed to feed chickens, pigs and cows," said Paulo Adario, coordinator of Greenpeace's Amazon Campaign.

Soy is now one of the principal causes of the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. In total, an area of about 1.2 million hectares of once pristine forest has been cut illegally for the purpose of planting soy. Many soy farmers are also involved in other illegal activities, such as illegal appropriation of land and slave labor.

Recent investigations by Greenpeace, summarized in the report "Eating the Amazon," show that Cargill's operations in Santarem is illegal--the company is shipping soy resulting from illegal logging to the world market. The company has 13 silos in the Amazon, more than any other company. "Cargill, and other such companies, should stop seeing the Amazon as a place where they can expand their soy operations. They should see it as one of the biggest tropical rain forests in the world which urgently needs protection," said Gavin Edwards, a coordinator for Greenpeace International.

Cargill does not hide the fact that they are trying to help establish soy farmers in the Amazon, some of whom are involved in the aforementioned illegal activities. The multinational did say they are doing their best not to buy soy from such farmers, but also said that they will not help stop the destruction of the Amazon.

In the last few weeks, Greenpeace has acted in Europe against companies who receive Cargill's shipments of soy. The NGO recently attempted to bar a shipment in Amsterdam.

Greenpeace is demanding from Cargill and the European food industry that they guarantee that the animal food that they buy does not contribute to the destruction of the Amazon, and that no soy products be genetically modified.

Source Adital, May 23, 2006