Comando Vermelho (CV; ) is a Brazilian criminal organization engaged primarily in drugs and arms trafficking. The group, originally known as Falange Vermelha ("Red Phalanx"), was formed in 1979 as an alliance between ordinary convicts and political prisoners (mainly members of left-wing urban guerrillas) who were imprisoned together during the 1964–1985 military dictatorship.
Influenced by radical left-wing ideologies, especially Marxism-Leninism and Maoism, they created codes of conduct and a structured hierarchy, and began employing urban guerrilla tactics against the state, while also practicing bank robberies, truckjackings and kidnappings as their main source of revenue; with their leaders controlling the organisation from inside the prisons. In the early 1980s, the group changed its name to Comando Vermelho and veered towards drug trafficking and territory control.
The Comando controls parts of Rio de Janeiro and has expanded to other states and into neighbouring countries. It has fought in several small-scale conflicts with both the government and rival groups such as Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Amigos dos Amigos (ADA) and Terceiro Comando (TC), the latter itself the result of a power struggle between Comando Vermelho leaders in the mid-1980s.
Overview
The group originally formed in the mid-late 1970s out of a prison alliance between common criminals and leftist guerrillas imprisoned together at Cândido Mendes Penal Institute, a maximum-security prison on the island of Ilha Grande. The prisoners formed the alliance to protect themselves from prison violence and guard-inflicted brutality. As the group coalesced, the common criminals were infused with leftist social justice ideals by the guerrillas. In 1979, prison officials labeled the alliance "Comando Vermelho", which the prisoners co-opted as their own.
In the 1980s, the group expanded beyond Ilha Grande and into other prisons and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, also becoming heavily involved in the cocaine trade. Brazil's shift towards democracy, including the Amnesty Law for political prisoners in 1979 and the end of the military dictatorship in 1985 led many of its politically-aligned members to return to civilian life, which resulted in the organization transitioning into a mafia or cartel-like structure, as, while it still retained many of the elements of a guerrila group (such as its use of irregular warfare tactics against state forces), many of its initial left-wing political ideals slowly became diluted within the organization's newfound focus on territorial and economic control, especially through the drug trade.
Cocaine brought the CV massive profits and growth; by 1986 the organization controlled ~70% of the cocaine trade in Rio's favelas and had established trading relationships with criminal groups in other states and neighboring countries. The group's decentralized leadership structure and disputes over profits prompted infighting, causing splinter groups such as the Terceiro Comando and Amigos dos Amigos to emerge. Conflicts with these splinters, as well as fierce resistance to state crackdowns on their operations, drove an uptick in violence throughout Brazil in the late 1980s, and into the 2000s.
Violence escalated until 2008, when the state government implemented a policy of "Pacification", which used permanent proximity-policing units (Unidade de Policia Pacificadora, known as UPPs) to maintain state control and "provide social order" in the favelas. A sharp decline in violence between the state and CV followed implementation. In 2013, Pacification efforts eroded, and conflicts between the group and state forces returned. In 2016, a 20-year truce between the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), a rival organization based in São Paulo, and the CV broke down, sparking violent clashes.
While not as powerful as its peak, CV remains significant throughout Brazil; its estimated to be the second-largest criminal organization in the country, only behind PCC. The CV may boast as many as 30,000 members. The organization also continues to traffic drugs and arms, as well as fight turf wars with rival gangs. In recent years, a struggle has intensified between the CV, PCC, and other smaller groups over control of trade routes and territory in the Amazon region.
History The Comando Vermelho is the oldest criminal faction in Brazil. The gang was formed in the 1970s under the name Falange Vermelha (Red Phalanx) from a prison alliance between common criminals and left-wing guerrillas imprisoned together in the Instituto Penal Cândido Mendes, a maximum security prison on the island of Ilha Grande, the latter framed within the National Security Law of the dictatorship. The prisoners formed the alliance to protect themselves from prison violence and guard brutality. As the group solidified, guerrilla groups instilled leftist ideals of social justice in the common criminals.
The Falange Vermelha, as it was known at the time, was influenced by urban guerrilla tactics. The Falange was founded by eight inmates from the "Fundão" (the back of the class)—the cellblock housing prisoners held under the National Security Law (LSN)—among them William da Silva Lima, known as "the Teacher" (). The teacher stated that the organization emerged in response to "oppression" and described the situation in the prisons as follows:
The guerrilla techniques adopted included conceptual elements of Marxist philosophy and asymmetric warfare tactics employed by armed leftist organizations. Texts such as The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital were studied in a way that transformed criminals into students of revolutionary rhetoric. Criminal actions came to be justified as a "response to unbearable conditions"—a narrative that masked violence with political language. The manuals by guerrilla fighters Carlos Marighella and Che Guevara—works banned in Brazil during the military regime—became guides for criminal operations, as bandits studied guerrilla tactics.
Military techniques The Falange Vermelha adopted a rigid hierarchy and discipline, and the bandits learned that the solidarity of the militants was more effective than violent individualism. The faction adopted the cellular structure of armed resistance organizations: semi-independent cells, coded communication, and compartmentalization. This hierarchical structure ensured that the faction could continue operating even with its leaders imprisoned. A code of conduct was adopted under the motto "Peace, justice, and freedom" () to prevent fratricidal struggles. Peace stated that one did not bring conflicts from the streets into the prison; Justice was a matter of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and Freedom had as its primary objective the escape. The robbery became a political act, involving meticulously planned actions that emerged from the armed left. In this way, the Comando Vermelho transformed robberies into military operations:
Detailed reconnaissance of objectives, Timed measurements, even for traffic lights, Evacuation routes for multiple vehicles.
The criminals went so far as to live near bank branches to gather confidential information. This level of planning transformed ordinary robberies into operations with an efficiency comparable to acts of war. The faction became capable of robbing a bank in four or five minutes—a level of efficiency inherited from those who sought to overthrow governments. There were also simultaneous attacks on several banks to confuse the police, the targeting of police stations with false alarms, and even "makeshift medical stations" to treat wounded criminals. Kidnappings were carried out to demand the release of criminal leaders, employing the concept of "devices" (). Originally created for revolutionary kidnappings, they were houses purchased in strategic locations to hide fugitives and store weapons and drugs. Other techniques employed by the guerrillas were communicated to the press during the rebellions, as was the use of political slogans. Control of the population was achieved through intimidation and territorial control under the concept of "social transformation."
The faction also established "tribunals" to adjudicate internal infractions (featuring prosecution, defense, and witnesses), emulating revolutionary "people's courts." One of the first measures was the creation of the organization's "common fund" (). Known as the "tithe" (), it consisted of 10% of the proceeds from every robbery going into a collective fund that financed escapes, paid for lawyers, and supported "war pensions" for widows. The money raised in this way would also serve to alleviate the prisoners' harsh living conditions, reinforcing the faction's authority and the respect it commanded among the prison population. A clandestine mail system known as "radiolas" was established, through which messages were passed between prisons and favelas via lawyers and family members. A secret code—the "Congo alphabet"—allowed leaders to control drug trafficking from inside their prison cells.
Origins (1971–1979)
The exact year that the Comando Vermelho was founded remains disputed, but sources agree the gang formed out of a prison alliance between leftist guerrillas and common criminals housed together during the 1970s by Brazil's military dictatorship at Cândido Mendes, a maximum security Brazilian prison.
Soon after their regime began in 1964, Brazil's military dictatorship faced a persistent challenge from leftist guerrilla rebels, made up largely of "middle-class intellectuals". In hopes of delegitimizing the rebels, in the early 1970s the Brazilian government began placing those they captured in prison alongside common criminals. One such prison, Candido Mendes, located on Ilha Grande, housed a mix of violent criminals and guerrillas in its notoriously brutal "Block B", or "The Pit". Inmates there were subject to frequent abuse at the hands of both their peers and the guards. The inmates banded together for mutual protection, shielding themselves from guard beatings and establishing a code of conduct for prisoners. Additionally, the guerrillas began to spread ideas about resistance, revolution, and social justice among the common criminals. As the alliance cemented, members introduced a common code of prison rules, designed to promote loyalty among members, reduce violence within the prison, and advance the common cause of the prisoners, while still maintaining a degree of autonomy for individual members to act as they desired.
In attempts to break up the alliance, prison officials moved inmate leaders to different wings and prisons, but this instead helped the group spread throughout the prison system. During this period prison officials gave the group its name: one official called the group "Comando Vermelho" in a memo to his colleagues. The name was adopted first by the press and then later by the group itself.
Split with the guerrillas and the cocaine boom (1979–late 1980s)
In 1979, sensing an impending democratization movement, newly installed President João Figueiredo and his military regime began to fear that they and members of their armed forces could face trial for human rights violations in a democratic system. To protect themselves, Figueiredo "manipulated a grassroots movement demanding amnesty for thousands of political prisoners and exiles to insulate himself and his colleagues from potential indictments," and passed the sweeping 1979 Amnesty Law, protecting political prisoners and their government captors from prosecution. As a result, the leftist guerrilla elements of the CV were released from prison, weakening the group's ideological bent.