Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Paraguay: The PCC’s great bank robbery

A gang of at least thirty men blew up the front of the Prosegur private security firm in Ciudad del Este, in Paraguay’s tri-border area, and made off with US$40million.

And that was just the start:
Huge robbery sparks gun battles in Paraguay and Brazil

After the robbery, the gang created a diversion by burning cars and attacking the local police station.

They escaped after a two-hour shootout that left one police officer dead at the scene after the company’s vaults were blown up.

Police believe they fled in several of the security company’s armoured trucks and then may have transferred their booty to waiting boats at the Parana river.

They were believed to have travelled 50km (30 miles) downriver to a region called Itaipulandia in Brazil, were they were intercepted by Brazilian police.

Brazilian federal police came across 12 men who exchanged fire and then escaped, Brazilian Globo website reported.

The BBC said there were fifty men, AlJazeera said up to 80 people may have been involved in the attack, and the Telegraph claims there were thirty,

Vladimir Jara, spokesman for Paraguay’s interior ministry, said they too believe the robbery was carried out by a Brazilian criminal organisation.
. . .
The city’s [Ciudad del Este] location means that cocaine from Bolivia flows down the river, before being distributed into the large Brazilian and Argentine metropolises.

At least 12 people managed to escape police at a third confrontation in Itaipulandia, also on the Brazilian side of the border.

Paraguayan police chief Luis Rojas said it was possible the attackers had help inside the police.

The above news video (in Spanish) attributes the robbery to Sao Paulo’s Primer Comando, Brazil’s largest organized crime organization, Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, which was recently recruiting Colombian FARC members.

The PCC reportedly has consolidated control over the area’s drug traffic monopoly.

CNN also reports

Authorities believe the robbers were members of Primer Comando de la Capital, one of the largest criminal organizations in Brazil.

O Globo (link in Portuguese) confirms that eight suspects are under arrest. The O Globo article states there are fifty suspects, and that the eleven hostages had been released. Brazil’s Federal Police seized six rifles, ammunition, two boats and seven vehicles used in the assault.

This is the largest robbery in Paraguay’s history.

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Brazil: PCC hiring FARC

The stuff gets real: Brazil’s largest criminal organization, the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital – First Capital Command) is recruiting Colombian FARC members (emphasis added),

as it seeks heavy-weapons and other expertise to help expand its hold over Latin America’s drug trade, investigators and officials in both countries say.

Defense and foreign ministry officials from both nations are scheduled to meet Tuesday in the city of Manaus in the Amazon region to share information on how the Brazilian criminal organization, the First Capital Command or PCC, is working to hire guerrillas in Colombia, some of whom opted not to participate in peace talks in that country. Colombia’s government last year signed a peace pact with the Marxist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and most of its 6,000 fighters are now preparing to disarm.

The PCC wants to fight the Brazilian military, wipe out competition from other gangs, and deal directly with Colombian cocaine suppliers – whose coca production surged by 46% from 2014 to 2015.

The gang is seeking .50-caliber machine guns, which are capable of taking down helicopters and perforating bulletproof cars, as well as to enlist parts of the FARC’s network of seasoned fighters and expert bomb makers

Additionally, InSight Crime reports that the PCC is using Uruguay as a transit point for international drug trafficking operations in Africa and Europe, and operating in Paraguay and Bolivia. InSight Crime has noted that

PCC is capable of organizing drug trafficking operations and sending drug shipments abroad, as well as controlling shipments of marijuana and cocaine in both national and regional markets.

Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia (which handles up to 80 percent of Italy-bound cocaine) is one of the PCC’s European partners.

Last week the Colombian government and the FARC announced a joint plan to fight against coca production.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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The ISIS border terror alert Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerJudicial Watch has an Imminent Terrorist Attack Warning By Feds on US Border, which, as Andrew McCarthy explains,

this is not a surprise — particularly less than two weeks before September 11. But it is nonetheless jarring to read.

ARGENTINA
Argentina workers claim general strike ‘successful’
Labour groups opposed to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez say the second general strike of the year has been a success.

More bat-shit craziness: Argentina contemplates moving capital from Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is seen as being geographically remote from much of the rest of the country
Buenos Aires could be replaced as capital of Argentina by a city 600 miles to the north [Santiago del Estero], under a plan floated by Cristina Kirchner

BOLIVIA
Bolivia Seizes Guns Bound for Brazilian Crime Outfit, the intended for the gang known as the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC).

BRAZIL
Other than post-Chavez Venezuela, Brazil is the worst out of 11 countries ranked by a joint study conducted by Brazilian and German economic think tanks.

Brazil Falls Into Recession
Brazil’s economy fell into a technical recession and cut its growth forecast, delivering another blow to President Dilma Rousseff’s re-election hopes.

Inside the all-woman village desperate for men
The women of of Noiva do Cordeiro are “appealing” for eligible men
Video
Harry Wallop visits the small rural Brazilian village of Noiva do Cordeiro, populated by beautiful women who are looking for love

CHILE
Immigration: Minister of Defense Warns Against “Entering Chile without Authorization”

Chile Manufacturing Falls More Than Forecast as Retail Slows

COLOMBIA
Fugitive Colombian Warlord Nabbed in Panama

Hoy en La Noche grupo de cubanos espera en Colombia respuesta a solicitud de refugio político:

CUBA
Why work? You earn more selling three avocados a day.

The Vatican’s man in Havana says Cubans’ only hope for a better life is to escape Cuba

Internet for Cubans vs. Helping Castro’s Censorship

Oh! Oh! Canada: Party girls UPDATE

DOMINICA
Dominica Will Be First Nation with Universal Bitcoin Possession
70,000 Island Residents Get a “Bitcoin Drop” March 2015

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Republic investigate ex-nuncio for pedophilia
Wesolowski appealing def[r]ocking by the Vatican

DRUGS
Drug Use and Drug Spending: How the Washington Post and the President Get It Wrong

ECUADOR
The Future of Dollarization in Ecuador

Ecuador to bring in digital currency
Ecuador says it will introduce the world’s first digital currency issued by a central bank and it will go into circulation in December

GUATEMALA
Jews ‘forced’ from Guatemala villageMen from a Jewish community load furniture onto a lorry in San Juan La Laguna
Some 230 members of an Orthodox Jewish group begin leaving a village in western Guatemala after a bitter row with the local indigenous community.

HONDURAS
Honduras Knocks on Door of Development Bank to Fund ZEDEs
Catrachos Seek Peace with Neighbors in Sensitive Gulf of Fonseca Region

JAMAICA
Jamaican Ends Legal Challenge to Anti-Sodomy Law after growing fearful about violent backlashes.

MEXICO
Mexico Looks to Raise Wages
Mexico City’s leftist Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera raised pressure on the federal government with a proposal to lift the federal minimum wage—which lags only behind Haiti in the hemisphere—to $6 per day for 2015.

Mexico’s Pemex Forecasts 6.7% Drop in Crude Production in 2014
The head of Pemex’s exploration and production division said production will fall from 2.52 million barrels per day in 2013 to 2.35 million bpd at the close of 2014

More Than 134,000 Petition Obama Admin. to Demand Release of Sgt. Tahmooressi — Here’s the Response They Received Instead

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua Landslide Traps Gold Miners
Rescuers in Nicaragua raced to reach at least 24 freelance gold miners trapped by a landslide, including 20 who have been located and have managed to communicate with emergency crews.

PANAMA
Widened Panama Canal may threaten West Coast port jobs

PARAGUAY
Brazil, Worse Than Paraguay

PERU
Peru Moves Van der Sloot to Tougher Prison

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Lures Franklin as Equity Funds Buy Junk: Muni Credit

URUGUAY
More than 20 companies bid to supply legal pot in Uruguay

VENEZUELA
Venezuelans Feel Less Safe than Any Population on Earth
Residents Rate “Law and Order” Worse than War-Torn Syria

Health Secretary: Venezuelan Medical Care in Critical Condition
Gustavo Villasmil Details How the Brain Drain and Supply Shortages Feed the Crisis

Venezuela’s Black Market Bolivar Slides to Record Low

Venezuela is becoming a crude importer. Discuss.

Chavismo promoting CITGO sale tells us more than what we care to know

There Is Too Much Money To Be Made In The Bolivarian Revolution I: The Gasoline Racket.

“Los venezolanos en el callejón sin salida del chavismo”

The Venezuela Case Study In How Not To Help The Poor

A Proposal of a New Flag from a Opposition Movement to Chavismo and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela {Venezuatu}…! THE NEW COUNTRY OF: Venecian Guiana !

HUMOR
HAHAHA You go to the beach and run into Hugo Chavez

The week’s posts and podcast:
A day in the life of the Panama Canal

ISIS border terror alert?

Colombia: Former Pablo Escobar lead henchman goes free

En español: Unidad de quemados

Brazil: 3 beheaded in prison riot

Today’s illegal alien invasion headlines

Argentina: Enter Soros

Peña Nieto goes to LA

Colombia: Was military intelligence hacked?

At Da Tech Guy Blog:
The audacity of taupe

Warren Buffett and his American dollars for Canadian doughnuts

Podcast:
Gloria M Strassburger, author, plus Fausta Wertz editor of Fausta’s Blog


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Brazil: 3 beheaded in prison riot

After a 2 day long riot that left 4 dead this week, Brazil officials say deadly Cascavel jail riot is over

Two prison guards who were held hostage have been released, police said.

Five inmates were killed in the riot. Two were beheaded while two more died after being pushed off the prison roof. Police are probing how the fifth died.
. . .
The prisoners had complained about the way Cascavel was run, its food and lack of hygiene.

Other accounts say that there were three beheadings.

The PCC were behind it. The Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC is Brazil’s biggest drug cartel. InSightCrime has their history,

The First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC) was inspired by the Red Command (Comando Vermelho). Both criminal organizations were formed by prisoners as self-protection groups in Brazil’s brutal prison system. The PCC arose in São Paulo in the 1990s, and has fought a bloody ongoing feud with police in the city. The group, now the largest and best-organized criminal organization in Brazil, is believed to have members in two-thirds of the country’s states, and controls drug trafficking routes between Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

As of Monday night, the prisoner’s negotiator was worried that the “agreement to end the revolt was still in doubt as concern emerged among the inmates over the possibility of a crackdown.”

Prisoners had armed themselves with the following (video in English),

Security forces are still searching the Cascavel jail; O Globo reports that as of yesterday, seven inmates were missing.


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Is Brazil ready for the World Cup?

Mounting Chaos in Rio Sparks Worries Over World Cup
As Rio gears up for next year’s FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, the summer uprising shows no signs of slowing the city, as reflected by vandalized storefronts and burned vehicles. Money quote:

“The hope brought by the World Cup and the Olympics has run out,” said Doriam Borges, a researcher at the University of the State of Rio’s Laboratory of Violence Analysis. Citizens realized that “for projects related to the World Cup and the Olympics, investment was huge, but not for health and education.”

And let’s keep in mind that both projects were sold as not needing government financing.

Then there’s the anarchists by any other name,

And protest marches are now attracting smaller groups of anarchists and so-called black bloc anticapitalist demonstrators clad in black hoodies and masks.

Rio’s black bloc organizers couldn’t be reached to comment. On their Facebook page, which has nearly 63,000 followers, the group quotes Italian anarchist Pietro Gori and say they see property destruction as part of their fight against capitalism.

And let’s not forget the PCC, too.

So, to answer the question above, no, not ready yet.


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Brazil: Biggest Sao Paolo cartel threatens violence at World Cup

Via Silvio Canto,
Brazil’s biggest drug cartel promises a ‘World Cup of terror’ as violent demonstrations take over the streets

In messages intercepted by police this week, leaders of the gang in Sao Paulo made the vague but ominous threat should the authorities move jailed members of the cartel to a tougher prison.
In Brazil, powerful gangs often linked to the drug trade are very powerful and frequently control whole prisons and favelas, or shanty towns.
…
During 2012, a war broke out between the gang and Sao Paulo’s Military Police.
They felt the government had violated an informal agreement, long denied by officials, to slow the prison transfers of gang leaders and limit crackdowns on its operations on Sao Paulo’s outskirts in exchange for an end to gang violence.

The reason the First Capital of the Command, Primeiro Comando da Capital, known as PCC (pronounced peh-ceh-ceh) don’t want their members dispersed to other jails outside the area is that they would have difficulty giving orders by cellphone to their soldiers on the outside.

The Mail article points out that the PCC was initially formed to pressure for improved prison conditions inside Sao Paulo’s Taubate Penitentiary:

While the gang’s start may have been rooted in fighting for basic human rights of the imprisoned, its members quickly began using their power inside prisons to direct drug-dealing and extortion operations on the outside.

‘The PCC is better organized, more powerful, and they have a monopoly of crimes and power which is something nobody achieved in Rio,’ said Ignacio Cano, a researcher at the Violence Analysis Center at Rio de Janeiro State University. ‘They are by far the strongest criminal group in Brazil.’

Reportedly they are well organized into a corporate business model that includes outsourcing.

Folha de Sao Paulo has been covering the PCC, and they report that Brazil’s defense minister stated in a press conference that the Federal Police, the National Guard and the Ministry of Defense are up to the challenge of providing security at the World Cup.

Meanwhile, protests continue in Brazil,

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