Primeiro Comando da Capital

Acho que no JN ele articulou, é óbvio, a maioridade penal fez pá, mas não foi só isso.

Toda a parte dele de segurança pública, ele encampou construção em massa de, de presídios, ele chamou de terroristas os membros de facções PCC e, e CV, tentando marcar uma diferença que não é um terrorismo de Estado, que os EUA-

Usa a construção retórica ali de-

Retórica e tal.

So this is, this is this group's history, um, leading up to now their designation as a terrorist group.

It's, it's, uh, the, the Portuguese acronym is PCC, so you'll hear PCC, Primeiro Comando da Capital, and that's, that's the group that is the one that should be on your radar more than any other.

The other group is called, um, the Red Command.

This group is actually older and, again, born in the prison system, born of abuses inside the prison system.

Both of these groups, the Red Command, the Comando Vermelho, and the Primeiro Comando da Capital, are, are have evolved into these very predatory, um, you know, very controlling, they have this sort of, their own criminal governance structures in the areas and, and that they operate.

Um, but they're also, they also know how to win the, the people around them.

Um, they offer, especially the PCC, the First Capital Command, offers an incredible array of, let's call them social services.

They will pay for the relatives of their members to hop in a bus and go long distances to visit them.

They would move to Brazil with Lula, and from there they could commit crimes all over Latin America.

And Lula said explicitly first that he did not want to join the Shield of the Americas, and second, he said it also explicitly, that he was against the US designating these two important organizations, Primeiro Comando Capital, First Commander Capital, and the Comando Vermelho, uh, the Red Command, the, the two most important terrorist organizations in Brazil.

He did not want them to be, uh, designated as, as, uh, terrorist groups by the US.

So he was an obstacle for this regional impo- very important initiative of working together to defeat the cartels.

We have 15 nations led by the United States officially uniting to target 24 specific criminal networks.

I mean, they are explicitly designating groups like the Sinaloa cartel, the PCC and Tren de Aragua as terrorist organizations.

Right.

They're elevating the threat level.

But, you know, for those who don't track the Latin American underworld on a daily basis, how do groups like the PCC or Tren de Aragua differ from, say, a traditional street gang?

Well, the scale and the structure are entirely different.

I mean, the PCC, the first capital command out of Brazil, they operate more like a massive franchise operation.

Like a fast food chain, but for organized crime?

First Paulista Commando.

No. Primeiro Comando da Capital.

First Command of the Capital-

Okay

I should talk.

Anyway, the Argentines extradited a man named Diego Diraccio to Brazil, where he's accused of running a weapons business supplying both the PCC and the Red Command.

And for those who don't know, the PCC and the Red Command are the two biggest companies massive gangs in brazil i think the pcc might at this point be the most powerful gang in south america or criminal organization in south america like straight up i mean if we're not including south america i don't think we want to include mexico there but i think it might even be up there with the with the with the cartels of mexico it is it's a global organization really and these guys um they don't like each other they kill each other by the hundreds and thousands

Yeah.

In many ways, the rise of Brazilian gangs in Latin America is like the story of organized crime in this part of the world over the past couple of years.

Over time, it spreads to other states into cross-border trafficking.

It was the biggest and the most powerful at one point.

And then the PCC comes along in Sao Paulo, say in 1993, with eight prisoners who formed the group after a massacre the previous year in a prison in which security forces killed more than 100 inmates.

Um, what-- Things begin to get a little bit odd because Canada and Mexico get a wrap on the knuckles.

Um, uh, "Whilst recognizing Mexican President Sheinbaum's administration for seizing greater volumes of drugs, Mexico must take additional action against narcoterrorist organizations." And, of course, as we've discussed, Deb, the Trump administration pretty soon upon taking office put, um, uh, a series of Mexican groups on their, their list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Um, and, uh, Canada, uh, seems to be, um, President Trump's favorite punching bag at the moment, so they, they get a mention as well.

Um, not quite sure why, but we do know that drugs come in through the, the, um, the Canadian border, which is obviously one of the longest borders in the world, um, and, and, and, and barely policed.