DRUGS-BRAZIL: Traffickers Bring Rio de Janeiro to a Standstill

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 30 2002 (IPS) - Organised crime groups involved in the drug trade paralysed business, schools and transport Monday in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro and its surroundings in an unprecedented show of force.

Downtown Rio de Janeiro and numerous neighbourhoods experienced a de facto holiday, with few people or buses seen on the streets on a day that would normally produce traffic jams and a hubbub of activity.

Phone calls and posted signs with the warning “keep doors closed or face retaliation” led to an interruption of commercial activity in several parts of the city, affecting gas stations, shops and banks, as well as schools and medical centres in Rio and in neighbouring Niteroi and Sao Gonçalo.

The threats were signed by the Comando Vermelho (CV, Red Commando) and the PCC (First Commando of the Capital), an organised group that originates in Sao Paulo. Their apparent intent is to unite the drug trafficking hierarchy across Brazil.

The Monday phenomenon, which triggered panic throughout much of the city, was a response to the restrictions that government authorities have imposed on CV leader, Luiz Fernando da Costa, nicknamed Fernandinho Beira-Mar, currently imprisoned at the local Military Police headquarters.

Arrested last year in Colombia, Beira-Mar led a Sep 11 rebellion at the prison where he was being held. The aim was reportedly to promote the assassination of four leaders of a rival drug gang, the Third Commando.

Once it was determined that he continued to oversee CV activities from his cell, where he had cellular phones and other comforts available, he was transferred to the Military Police installations and is being kept in isolation.

The government of Rio de Janeiro state, in charge of public safety, acknowledged that commercial activity ground to a halt in 22 districts, and blamed it on rumours spread for political ends.

Governor Benedita da Silva blamed the city’s paralysis on “manoeuvrings” by candidates who seek to replace her in the governorship. Her post is up for the vote in Sunday’s elections, when an electorate of 115 million will have the chance to vote for president, vice-president, 27 governors and national and state lawmakers.

Silva did not name names, but her statements suggest she was referring to Solange Amaral, candidate for the coalition supported by the national government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and by the mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Cesar Maia.

“It’s strange” that many public schools called off classes at 7:00 in the morning, even before the drug traffickers’ threats began to circulate, commented the governor.

The city lived a day of fear of the possibility — real or not — of reprisals. It was the first time that the shops in wealthy, tourist neighbourhoods, like Ipanema and Leblon, kept their doors closed because of threats from organised crime.

A criminal ring used similar intimidation tactics a month ago against shops and businesses in 10 Rio districts in reaction to the death of the band’s leader. But the affected areas were poor ‘favelas’ (slums) and the nearby middle-class neighbourhoods.

Another show of organised crime’s power occurred in February 2001, when the PCC surprised Brazil with a coordinated rebellion in 29 prisons in 19 cities in Sao Paulo state. Some of the prisons were under the inmates’ control for more than 24 hours.

Monday’s action was retaliation against “the effectiveness with which the state government and the police have cracked down on crime rings,” commented Orlando Diniz, chairman of the Rio de Janeiro State Federation of Commerce.

Diniz calculated that the paralysis of business produced 130 million reais (35 million dollars) in losses, just for Monday morning.

The business leader announced that the Federation and other business associations are ready and willing to join the fight against crime.

“We cannot let the feeling expand that crime is winning. Citizens must not be passive,” stated Diniz.

The shutdown of much of the city could not be prevented despite the deployment of 13,000 police and the authorities’ “guarantees” of protection from possible actions by drug traffickers in retaliation against anyone who dared head to the bank or to school.

Governor Silva and her supporters noted that a similar tense climate was created in 1992 on the eve of municipal elections, prompting the mobilisation of the armed forces to ensure calm in the city.