Comando Vermelho: Difference between revisions

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{{shortShort description|Brazilian criminal organization}}
 
{{Infobox Criminal organization
| name = '''Comando Vermelho'''
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| founding_location = Candido Mendes Prison, [[Ilha Grande]], [[Rio de Janeiro (state)|Rio de Janeiro]], [[Brazil]]
| years_active = 1979–present
| leaders = {{flatlist| * Luiz Fernando da Costa <ref>{{citeCite web|url=https://istoe.com.br/os-donos-do-crime/|title=Os donos do crime: Marcola, Beira-Mar e Zé Roberto da Compensa |publisher= Istoé |date= 6 January 2017|accessdate=2022-07-21}}</ref>
* Márcio dos Santos Nepomuceno}}
| ethnicity =
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*{{COL}}
| membership =
| activities = [[Murder]], [[drug trafficking]], [[bribery]], [[loan sharking]], [[arms trafficking]], [[assault]], [[rioting]], [[money laundering]], [[Truck hijacking|hijacking]], [[fraud]], and [[bank robbery]]<ref name=conf />
| 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, [[Medellín Cartel]]
| rivals = [[Primeiro Comando da Capital]],<ref>{{citeCite news|last1=Fonseca|first1=Pedro|last2=Brooks|first2=Brad|title=Brazil gang kills 31, many hacked to death, as prison violence explodes|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-prison-idUSKBN14Q1FR|website=Reuters|date=6 January 2017 |access-date=7 January 2017|ref=reutersviolence}}</ref> [[Terceiro Comando]], [[Terceiro Comando Puro]], [[Amigos dos Amigos]], [[Brazilian police militias]], [[Família do Norte]], [[Guardiões do Estado]], [[Cali Cartel]]
}}
 
'''Comando Vermelho''' ({{IPA-pt|koˈmɐ̃du veʁˈmeʎu|lang}}, ''Red Command'' or ''Red Commando''), also known as '''C.V.''' is a Brazilian [[criminal organization]] engaged primarily in [[Illegal drug trade|drug trafficking]], [[arms trafficking]], [[Protectionprotection racket|protection racketeering]]eering, [[Kidnapping|kidnappingskidnapping]]s-for-[[ransom]], [[Armored car (valuables)|armored truck]] [[Carjacking|hijackings]], [[loansharking]], [[irregular warfare]], [[Narcoterrorism|narco-terrorism]], and [[Gang#Gang violence|turf wars]] against rival criminal organizations, such as [[Primeiro Comando da Capital]] and [[Terceiro Comando Puro]].<ref name=conf>[http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=22&regionSelect=5-Southern_Americas# Conflict Encyclopedia, Brazil, non-state conflict, Comando Vermelho - Terceiro Comando] from [[Uppsala Conflict Data Program]] accessed 21 December 2013</ref> The group, originally known as '''''Falange Vermelha''''' ("Red Phalanx"), was formed in 1979 as an alliance between ordinary convicts and leftist militants who were incarcerated together during the [[Brazilian military government|military dictatorship of 1964–1985]].<ref name=conf /><ref name=RC345>{{citeCite web|url=https://www.insightcrime.org/brazil-organized-crime-news/red-command-profile/|title=Red Command|work=InSight Crime|date=May 18, 2018|access-date=May 2, 2020}}</ref> In the early 1980s, the group changed its name to ''Comando Vermelho'' and abandoned its far-left political ideology.<ref name=RC345 /><ref name=conf />
 
Comando Vermelho controls parts of [[Rio de Janeiro]] and has fought several small-scale conflicts (in 2001 and 2004) with the rival gang [[Terceiro Comando]] which itself emerged from a power struggle amongst the leaders of Comando Vermelho during the mid-1980s.<ref name=conf />
 
The organization is a collection of independent cells rather than having a strict hierarchy, however prominent bosses include Luiz Fernando da Costa and Isaias da Costa Rodrigues.<ref>[http://www.insightcrime.org/groups-brazil/comando-vermelho Red Command] by ''InSight Crime'' {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603163701/http://www.insightcrime.org/groups-brazil/comando-vermelho |date=2013-06-03 }}</ref> The group calls leaders "''donos''" (Portuguese for "owners"), and has different donos in charge of different aspects of the gang's life. The Red Command "president" and "vice-president" positions are held by donos that are currently incarcerated.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=28 Mar 2022 |title=Responses to Information Requests (RIRs) |url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/09/30/BRA41405.FE.pdf |access-date=1 April 2022 |website=Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada}}</ref> These incarcerated donos practice internal criminal governance as described by Lessing. In prison, the donos "rule prison life, settle internal faction disputes that occur outside of prison and make the final decision on any matters of mutual interest for faction affiliates."<ref name=":0" />
Comando Vermelho controls parts of [[Rio de Janeiro]] and has fought several small-scale conflicts (in 2001 and 2004) with the rival gang [[Terceiro Comando]] which itself emerged from a power struggle amongst the leaders of Comando Vermelho during the mid-1980s.<ref name=conf/>
 
In late June 2007, Rio de Janeiro police launched a large-scale assault on the area where up to 24 people were killed.<ref>{{citeCite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/brazil/story/0,,2114658,00.html | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Tom | last=Phillips | title=Blood on the streets as drug gang and police fight for control of Rio favelas | date=29 June 2007}}</ref> According to a study by the [[Federal University of Rio de Janeiro]]'s Violence Research Center, in 2008 the group controlled 38.8% of the city's most violent areas, down from 53% in 2005.<ref name="gollo">{{citeCite news|url=http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/200-january-2009/10295-vigilante-groups-in-brazil-trump-drug-gangs-and-become-rios-new-authority.html|title=Vigilante Groups in Brazil Trump Drug Gangs and Become Rio's New Authority|last=Gollo|first=Luiz Augusto|date=2009-11-11|work=Brazzil|access-date=23 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091115105012/http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/200-january-2009/10295-vigilante-groups-in-brazil-trump-drug-gangs-and-become-rios-new-authority.html|archive-date=15 November 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The organization is a collection of independent cells rather than having a strict hierarchy, however prominent bosses include Luiz Fernando da Costa and Isaias da Costa Rodrigues.<ref>[http://www.insightcrime.org/groups-brazil/comando-vermelho Red Command] by ''InSight Crime'' {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603163701/http://www.insightcrime.org/groups-brazil/comando-vermelho |date=2013-06-03 }}</ref> The group calls leaders "''donos''" (Portuguese for "owners"), and has different donos in charge of different aspects of the gang's life. The Red Command "president" and "vice-president" positions are held by donos that are currently incarcerated.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=28 Mar 2022 |title=Responses to Information Requests (RIRs) |url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/09/30/BRA41405.FE.pdf |access-date=1 April 2022 |website=Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada}}</ref> These incarcerated donos practice internal criminal governance as described by Lessing. In prison, the donos "rule prison life, settle internal faction disputes that occur outside of prison and make the final decision on any matters of mutual interest for faction affiliates."<ref name=":0" />
 
== Comando Vermelho and funk carioca ==
In late June 2007, Rio de Janeiro police launched a large-scale assault on the area where up to 24 people were killed.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/brazil/story/0,,2114658,00.html | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Tom | last=Phillips | title=Blood on the streets as drug gang and police fight for control of Rio favelas | date=29 June 2007}}</ref> According to a study by the [[Federal University of Rio de Janeiro]]'s Violence Research Center, in 2008 the group controlled 38.8% of the city's most violent areas, down from 53% in 2005.<ref name="gollo">{{cite news|url=http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/200-january-2009/10295-vigilante-groups-in-brazil-trump-drug-gangs-and-become-rios-new-authority.html|title=Vigilante Groups in Brazil Trump Drug Gangs and Become Rio's New Authority|last=Gollo|first=Luiz Augusto|date=2009-11-11|work=Brazzil|access-date=23 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091115105012/http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/200-january-2009/10295-vigilante-groups-in-brazil-trump-drug-gangs-and-become-rios-new-authority.html|archive-date=15 November 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The Comando continue to attract new Brazilian youth and bring them into their [[Social status|ranks]].<ref name="grillo">{{citeCite news |last1=Grillo |first1=Ioan |title=The gangs who rule Brazil's favelas are not afraid to be seen |url=https://www.theworldweekly.com/reader/view/15863/the-gangs-who-rule-brazils-favelas-are-not-afraid-to-be-seen |access-date=20 June 2021 |work=The World Weekly |date=26 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="IRB">{{citeCite web |last1=Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |title=Brazil: the Red Command (Comando Vermelho, CV) criminal organization, including activities, areas of operation, membership, structure, networks, political connections, and resources; state protection available for victims of crimes committed by the Red Command (2017-March 2019) [BRA106243.E] |url=https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index.aspx?doc=457774&pls=1 |access-date=20 June 2021 |language=en |date=2019-04-08 |via= ecoi.net/en/document/2011300.html}}</ref> In addition to sponsoring groups like neighborhood associations and special interest clubs, and organizing sporting events, one of the most common ways in which the criminal organization is able to catch the youth's attention is through the popular musical style of [[funk carioca|funk]], a form of Brazilian music derived from [[Miami Bass]]. Due to the genre's popularity with young Brazilians, the group "is known to have subsidized funk parties to recruit young kids for drug dealing".<ref name="behague">Behague, Gerard (Spring-Summer 2006). "Rap, Reggae, Rock, or Samba: The Local and the Global in Brazilian Popular Music, 1985-1995." ''Latin American Music Review''. '''27''' (1): 79-90</ref>
 
In addition to these funk parties (''bailes funk''), "where drugs and sex attract even bourgeois or petty-bourgeois youth",<ref name="wsws.org">[http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/braz-m18.shtml{{Cite web|title=Brazil: The social contradictions underlying the violent eruption in SãoSao Paulo] Benoit, Hector|url=https://www. 18 May wsws.org/en/articles/2006/05/braz-m18. html|access-date=2023-01-03|website=World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 14 February 2008|language=en}}</ref> held regularly by the organization every Sunday, funk artists are also sponsored by the Comando Vermelho to record songs and even entire CDs that promote the group and eulogize the group's dead members. Because the Comando pays for the production and recording of the funk songs, they "are often well recorded and of a high technical quality, and are being played on pirate radio stations and sold by hundreds of street vendors in [[Rio de Janeiro]] and in [[São Paulo]]".<ref name="wsws.org" /> Thus the funk artists that are in league with Comando Vermelho sometimes garner significant sales and airplay despite making a type of music that is Proibidão, or "extremely prohibited", in terms of where it can be sold and who can play it. In addition to promoting the crime group, the funk sponsored by the Comando also challenges the ideas and laws of the Division of the Repression Against Drugs.<ref name="behague" />
==Comando Vermelho and funk carioca==
The Comando continue to attract new Brazilian youth and bring them into their [[Social status|ranks]].<ref name="grillo">{{cite news |last1=Grillo |first1=Ioan |title=The gangs who rule Brazil's favelas are not afraid to be seen |url=https://www.theworldweekly.com/reader/view/15863/the-gangs-who-rule-brazils-favelas-are-not-afraid-to-be-seen |access-date=20 June 2021 |work=The World Weekly |date=26 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="IRB">{{cite web |last1=Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |title=Brazil: the Red Command (Comando Vermelho, CV) criminal organization, including activities, areas of operation, membership, structure, networks, political connections, and resources; state protection available for victims of crimes committed by the Red Command (2017-March 2019) [BRA106243.E] |url=https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index.aspx?doc=457774&pls=1 |access-date=20 June 2021 |language=en |date=2019-04-08 |via= ecoi.net/en/document/2011300.html}}</ref> In addition to sponsoring groups like neighborhood associations and special interest clubs, and organizing sporting events, one of the most common ways in which the criminal organization is able to catch the youth's attention is through the popular musical style of [[funk carioca|funk]], a form of Brazilian music derived from [[Miami Bass]]. Due to the genre's popularity with young Brazilians, the group "is known to have subsidized funk parties to recruit young kids for drug dealing".<ref name="behague">Behague, Gerard (Spring-Summer 2006). "Rap, Reggae, Rock, or Samba: The Local and the Global in Brazilian Popular Music, 1985-1995." ''Latin American Music Review''. '''27''' (1): 79-90</ref>
In addition to these funk parties (''bailes funk''), "where drugs and sex attract even bourgeois or petty-bourgeois youth",<ref name="wsws.org">[http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/braz-m18.shtml Brazil: The social contradictions underlying the violent eruption in São Paulo] Benoit, Hector. 18 May 2006. World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 14 February 2008</ref> held regularly by the organization every Sunday, funk artists are also sponsored by the Comando Vermelho to record songs and even entire CDs that promote the group and eulogize the group's dead members. Because the Comando pays for the production and recording of the funk songs, they "are often well recorded and of a high technical quality, and are being played on pirate radio stations and sold by hundreds of street vendors in [[Rio de Janeiro]] and in [[São Paulo]]".<ref name="wsws.org"/> Thus the funk artists that are in league with Comando Vermelho sometimes garner significant sales and airplay despite making a type of music that is Proibidão, or "extremely prohibited", in terms of where it can be sold and who can play it. In addition to promoting the crime group, the funk sponsored by the Comando also challenges the ideas and laws of the Division of the Repression Against Drugs.<ref name="behague"/>
 
== Structure ==
According to accounts recorded by investigative journalists, Red Commando's structure consists of a "loose" arrangement in which a syndicate of individual criminals are associated and united under a leadership command.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 26, 2021 |title=Red Command |url=https://americasquarterly.org/article/red-command/ |access-date=2022-04-01 |website=Americas Quarterly |language=en-US}}</ref> Rather than a hierarchical organization, Red Commando has been described as a "network of independent actors."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-03-27 |title=Red Command |url=https://insightcrime.org/brazil-organized-crime-news/red-command-profile/ |access-date=2022-04-01 |website=InSight Crime |language=en-US}}</ref>
 
On the Global Organized Crime Index, Brazil has been given a "Criminality" score of 6.50 and ranks 22nd out of 193 countries and has been given a "Resilience" score of 5.04 and ranks 87th out of 193 countries. Higher Criminality scores are indicative of greater criminality conditions while higher Resilience scores are indicative of how well a country responds to organized crime.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Criminality in Brazil - The Organized Crime Index |url=https://ocindex.net/ |access-date=2022-04-01 |website=ocindex.net |language=en}}</ref>
 
== Attacks of government targets ==
{{seeSee also|November 2010 Rio de Janeiro favela shootout}}
 
On 19 November 2016, a police helicopter of the Rio de Janeiro police was shot down by small arms fire during a clash with gang members of [[Comando Vermelho]] and crashed in a ditch. All four police officers onboard were killed.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Brazil: Four dead after police helicopter 'shot down by gang'|work=BBC News|date=20 November 2016|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38041847|access-date=2021-08-27}}</ref><ref>{{YouTube|l_voIA_6W34|"Brazilian police probe military chopper crash"}}</ref>
In June 2018, the Red Command launched attacks on a Bolivian Army base in [[Porvenir (Bolivia)|Porvenir]] and a Brazilian police station in [[Epitaciolandia]], in both instances stealing weapons and ammunition.<ref>{{citeCite news |publisher=[[InSight Crime]] |title=Red Command Arrests in Bolivia Point to Group's Likely Expansion |url=https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/red-command-captures-bolivia-point-groups-expansion/ |date=June 19, 2018 |first=James |last=Bargent}}</ref>
 
== Women's roles in the gang ==
Women's roles within Red Commando are not clearly defined, but by analyzing PCC, a similar group, women are observed as exercising positions of power and participating in gang justice and violence, challenging the misconception that women are only utilized in the lowest echelons. Traditionally, women in Brazilian gangs are assumed to possess little power and are thought to be connected only through close relationships for whom they serve to help with domestic duties, carrying messages, or smuggling drugs. However, women have been increasingly incorporated into the arrangement and enactment of crimes, revealing that women are able to rise to higher leadership positions and are willing to take part in the violence.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-11-11 |title=Women in Brazil PCC Cell Take Part in Planning Killings |url=https://insightcrime.org/news/brief/women-brazil-pcc-planning-killings/ |access-date=2022-04-01 |website=InSight Crime |language=en-US}}</ref>
 
== In popular culture ==
[[Ross Kemp]] made a documentary about the Red Command (CV). The film ''[[City of God (2002 film)|City of God]]'' shows the early beginnings of Comando Vermelho. The DVD release of this movie contains an extra documentary "News of a Private War" which features interviews with the police and local children from the [[favela]]s (slums).
 
The Brazilian crime film "400 contra 1", released in 2010, narrates a fictionalized history of the birth of the gang in the late 1970s.
 
== See also ==
{{Portal|Brazil}}
* [[Primeiro Comando da Capital]]
* [[Militias-Comando Vermelho conflict]]
 
== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{reflistReflist}}
 
=== General bibliography ===
* [https://www.theguardian.com/brazil/story/0,,2114658,00.html "Blood on the streets as drug gang and police fight for control of Rio favelas"] in ''[[The Guardian]]''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110519045737/http://www.unodc.org/pdf/brazil/word_midia/favelas.doc UNODC Report: Firearms and drugs fuel conflict in Brazil's favelas]
* {{citeCite journal |last1=Coutinho |first1=Leonardo |title=The Evolution of the Most Lethal Criminal Organization in Brazil—the PCC |journal=PRISM |date=19 February 2019 |volume=8 |issue=1 |url=https://cco.ndu.edu/News/Article/1761039/the-evolution-of-the-most-lethal-criminal-organization-in-brazilthe-pcc/ |access-date=20 June 2021 |publisher=National Defense University}}
* {{citeCite news |last1=Dalby |first1=Chris |title=Rage, Rinse, Repeat - The Futile Cycle of Anger at Rio's Police |url=https://insightcrime.org/news/futile-cycle-rio-police/ |access-date=20 June 2021 |work=InSight Crime |date=7 May 2021}}
 
{{Organized crime groups in America}}