A recent truce between Brazil’s two largest criminal organizations could reduce territorial disputes and violence in Latin America’s biggest nation, as rival leaders join forces after nearly a decade of conflict.
Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, alias “Marcola,” and Márcio dos Santos Nepomuceno, alias “Marcinho VP,” leaders of the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC) and the Red Command (Comando Vermelho – CV), recently signed a truce with the goal of relaxing Brazil’s penitentiary system rules and jointly operating the country’s two major trafficking routes.
Marcola and Marcinho VP have been negotiating the truce since 2019, when the main PCC leaders were taken to federal prisons, according to Brazilian prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya in an interview with UOL.
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The gangs had been fighting each other since 2016, when the PCC broke off a previous truce, detonating months of bloody prison riots that led to a massive number of deaths.
Groups linked to the PCC control the “Caipira Route” (Rota Caipira), which starts in Bolivia and runs to the port of Santos, Brazil, to move drugs into Europe and Africa.
Factions of the Red Command control the “Solimões Route” (Rota do Solimões), which transports drugs across the Amazon rainforest through the Solimões and Amazon rivers.
After the gangs signed their most recent truce, authorities reported orders from inside the groups to stop attacks against rival members.
A Less Strict Prison System
The PCC and Red Command are unlikely to achieve their goal of relaxing prison rules. Authorities need to maintain an image of having complete control over these entities, and avoid giving the gangs what they want.
Instead, the gangs may be able to undermine the penitentiary regime on the whole, as the groups unite to co-opt authorities and govern prisons.
“Criminals may be able to limit the effectiveness of the federal penitentiary system in practice, by using bribes and reducing the prisons’ capacity of punishing them, for example,” Bruno Pantaleão, a researcher at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (Fundação Getulio Vargas – FGV) at the think tank FGV Cidades, told InSight Crime.
Even though authorities reportedly fear joint escape attempts by gang leaders as the PCC and Red Command mobilize in prisons, such attempts are unlikely to succeed.
“It would make sense to have more escape attempts because the gangs will have more resources, but technologies such as drones, cameras, and motion detectors make it more difficult for them to achieve this goal,” Pantaleão explained.
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Less Violence, More Drugs
Disputes between the PCC and the Red Command are expected to decrease as they work together to improve conditions behind bars. Similarly, the truce is expected to reduce conflict over key drug trafficking routes, allowing more cocaine to flow through Brazil.
Joint trafficking efforts by the PCC and the Red Command via the Caipira route, which is used to move drugs from Bolivia into Europe and Africa through the port of Santos, will boost the volume of cocaine sent from Brazil to those continents. The truce may also help expand the presence of both groups in Bolivia via their activities on that route.
In northern Brazil, the Solimões trafficking route has seen frequent disputes between the Red Command and the PCC, and this dynamic also promises to soften following the truce as gangs unite and expand.
Homicide levels across all trafficking routes are likely to fall, but criminal conflicts are not expected to stop completely across Brazil. Even if violence between the two main gangs decreases, the now-allied groups may clash with other local gangs.
Featured Image: Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, alias “Marcola,” on the left, and Márcio dos Santos Nepomuceno, alias “Marcinho VP,” leaders of the First Capital Command who just agreed a truce with their decade-long rivals the Red Command.