In 2007, the Rio newspaper The Globe asked urban planners and intellectuals to imagine what the physiognomy of Rio de Janeiro in the coming decades. One of them designed a large building that displayed a huge red sign high up with a deceptive similarity to those of the McDonald’s hamburger chain. But the acronym was different: CV. The future, it was suggested, was partly associated with the projection of the Red Command. The scenes typical of a war in the northern area of the “wonderful city”, where The high technology of drones was used by both drug trafficking and State forcesgave that image from 18 years ago the character of an unheard prophecy. The confrontation between the police and the CV ended with 121 confirmed deaths and the exhibition of 56 corpses surrounded by their relatives. What happened in a still perplexed and fearful Rio de Janeiro, especially its poor neighborhoods, the Alemão and Penha complexes, is currently projected beyond Brazil. The most lethal and controversial operation in Brazilian history has taken place at a time when Donald Trump’s Administration considers drug cartels “narcoterrorists” who can be killed in international waters and even foreign territories as if they were an enemy army.
The CV is an organization that has thousands of members and goes beyond the limits of the Rio state. Its ramifications extend inside and outside the South American giant. Some of their “soldiers” arrested after clashes with the police came from other regions. What is becoming more clear for society at this time is not only the exponential growth of the CV. Its origins are linked to decisions adopted by the last military dictatorship (1964-85). At the end of the 60s, the regime modified the National Security Law, and mixed political prisoners, some of them guerrillas, and common criminals in the same prison.. Forced coexistence became the first school for those who would found the group capable of challenging the political power of Brazil. The imprisoned dissidents created collective pantries, libraries, community pharmacies and established a system of representation before the prison authorities.
“The Professor”
William da Silva Lima took note of this engineering when founding the faction Red Phalanxin principle with the purpose of confronting torture and ill-treatment. That story was told in the film Almost Two Brothers by Lucía Murat 21 years ago. Known then as “the professor”, Da Silva Lima recounts in Four hundred against one (Four hundred against one) what that learning was like. “I committed to supporting the effort to maintain unity and avoid any manifestation of individualism. A more informed group acted as organizer of the group and there was a commission in charge of negotiating, on behalf of everyone, with the Administration. In the distribution of the cubicles, an attempt was made to bring together colleagues who did and did not have visitors, to guarantee that everyone had access to external help, generally food reinforcement or hygiene materials.” In the frequent shared meetings “internal and general problems were discussed, including collective reading sessions. The history of man’s wealth y Vietnam: the guerrilla seen from within “They were two of the books we had there.”
When the political prisoners began to regain their freedom, the “Falange” became “Command“and moved away from doctrinal routines and their motto “Peace, Justice and Freedom”. One of its first actions was to raise its own funds to finance dozens of resonant leaks. It was, however, the expansion of the cocaine which gave it its appearance starting in the 80s. The growth was parallel to that of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), which operated in Sao Paulo.
Drugs are currently a source of economic accumulation diversified in other areas, from gold and wood to the irregular sale of fuel, cigarettes y alcohol. The activities derived from money laundering are financial speculation, the real estate business, the manufacture of weapons and even retail trade. The CV has crossed borders and is present at least in Paraguay y Argentina.
The right in action
The events that shook Rio de Janeiro and Brazil have a dimension that exceeds criminality. Rio governor Claudio Castro, ally of former president Jair Bolsonarodid not hesitate to use the label “terrorists” and ask that the national State not spare its firepower to neutralize them. While Rio de Janeiro was counting the dead, Castro, recalled Míriam Leitão, a columnist for The GlobeHe declared himself proud of what had happened. “Worse than their distortion of the analysis is the fact that the Federal Supreme Court, in a single vote in April, ordered Rio to do exactly the opposite, to have a plan to reduce the lethality of the operations.”
The reason for disobedience to the highest judicial instance is connected to the situation. According to Vinicius Torres Freire, from the São Paulo newspaper Sheetthe right was cornered “after almost three months of defeats”, including the condemnation of Bolsonaro and the start of negotiations between Trump and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to rebuild bilateral relations. “Now they plan a cadaverous counteroffensive. The governors want to propagandize the massacre in Rio de Janeiro to create a campaign slogan and prepare an attack on the federal government.” In this context, Governor Castro “copied” the national and international war policy of the Republican magnate. “In addition to vassalage, it is ignorance and war propaganda.” In this way, “it will be difficult for the country to escape from the cycle of death, from the circle of blood. Organized crime is getting stronger.” Senator Flávio Bolsonaro had gone ahead of Castro. Last week he proposed to the United States to apply the same medicine in Brazilian waters as bombing vessels that supposedly transport drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
Government response
Lula’s government took note of Castro’s rhetorical turn. On the one hand, he announced the installation of an emergency office to confront the CV. At the same time, he published a video on social networks in which he criticizes the so-called Operation Containment in the north of the city. On the one hand, the obvious is underlined: organized crime “destroys families, oppresses residents and spreads drugs and violence in cities”. At the same time, he highlights the need to combat the “head” of this organization, and gives as an example the recent raid on the PCC in which the prosecutor’s office, the treasury and the police dismantled a powerful network linked to stock market activity and the energy sector. “For crime fighting to work, you need more intelligence and less blood.” And he concludes: “Killing 120 people is of no use. Even if they are all criminals, tomorrow there will be another 120 doing the same job“. Ricardo Balestreri, former national secretary of Public Security, was forceful in this regard. The CV has achieved “tyrannical power” over large areas of Rio and “the domination of these criminals, exercised with long weapons, cannot be allowed.” However, he considers that fighting organized crime “only in the favelas (poor neighborhoods) is deceiving the population”.
Subscribe to continue reading
