The Primeiro Comando da Capital is a Brazilian organized crime syndicate. According to a 2023 The Economist report, the PCC is Latin America's biggest drug gang, with a membership of 40,000 lifetime members plus 60,000 "contractors". Its name refers to the São Paulo state capital, the city of São Paulo.
Funk carioca, also known as favela funk, in other parts of the world as baile funk and Brazilian funk, or even simply funk, is a Brazilian hip hop-influenced music genre from Rio de Janeiro, taking influences from musical styles such as Miami bass and freestyle.
Comando Vermelho, also known as CV, is a Brazilian criminal organization engaged primarily in drug trafficking, arms trafficking, protection racketeering, kidnapping-for-ransom, hijacking of armored trucks, loansharking, irregular warfare, narco-terrorism, and turf wars against rival criminal organizations, such as Primeiro Comando da Capital and Terceiro Comando Puro. The gang formed in the early 1970s out of a prison alliance between common criminals and leftist guerrillas who were imprisoned together at Cândido Mendes, 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", a name which the prisoners eventually co-opted as their own. In the 1980s, the gang expanded beyond Ilha Grande into other prisons and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and became involved in the rapidly growing cocaine industry. Meanwhile, Brazil's shift towards democracy and the eventual end of the military dictatorship in 1985 allowed the leftist guerrillas to re-enter society; thus, the CV largely abandoned its left-wing ideology.
Amigos dos Amigos is a criminal organization that operates in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. It was started up in 1998 when a member of Comando Vermelho was expelled from the organization for ordering the murder of another member. The gang's main rivals are Comando Vermelho and Terceiro Comando Puro. ADA controls many drug selling points in the North and West zones.
Proibidão, which literally translates to "strongly prohibited" or "heavily forbidden", is a subgenre of funk carioca music originating from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro where it began in the early 1990s as a parallel phenomenon to the growth of drug gangs in the many slums of the city. The drug gangs sponsored DJs and baile funks in the favelas they controlled to spread respect and love for their gang as well as hate to the other gangs. The music that resulted is proibidão.
Tim Lopes was a Brazilian investigative journalist and producer for the Brazilian television network Rede Globo. In 2002, the media reported him missing while working undercover on a story in one of Rio's favelas. It was later learned that Lopes had been accosted by drug traffickers who controlled the area, was kidnapped, driven to the top of a neighboring favela in the trunk of a car, tied to a tree and subjected to a mock trial, tortured by having his hands, arms, and legs severed with a sword while still alive, and then had his body necklaced—a practice that traffickers have dubbed micro-ondas.
Brazil has one of the highest crime rates in the world, which involves an elevated incidence of violent and non-violent crimes. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Brazil had a homicide rate of 21.26 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021, up from 20.89 per 100,000 inhabitants with 43,073 murders in 2019; however, this was lower than in 2017, when Brazil had a homicide rate of 30.59 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2018, Brazil had one of the highest number of intentional homicides in the world with 57,358. In addition, Brazil rates second in illegal drug trade in the world.
Vidigal is a neighborhood and a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Morro da Babilônia is a hill in the Leme neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, separating Copacabana beach from Botafogo. It is home to a favela known by the same name, as well as the favela Chapéu Mangueira. Morro da Babilônia is an environmentally protected area.
Favela Santa Marta is a favela located in the Botafogo and Laranjeiras part of the Morro Dona Marta, that is also divided with the neighborhoods of Flamengo, Cosme Velho and Silvestre, in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It has about 3,913 residents and 1,287 domiciles, with 500 wooden houses, 2,000 brick houses, 4 kindergartens, 3 bakeries, 2 sports fields, 1 block of a samba school, 3 military units and 1 small market. The favela is one of the steepest in the city, with an altitude of 352 metres (1,155 ft), approximately 45 degrees of inclination and occupies an area equivalent to 53,706 square metres (578,090 sq ft).
The Pacifying Police Unit, abbreviated UPP, is a law enforcement and social services program pioneered in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which aims to reclaim territories, most commonly favelas, controlled by gangs of drug dealers. The program was created and implemented by State Public Security Secretary José Mariano Beltrame, with the backing of Rio Governor Sérgio Cabral. The stated goal of Rio's government is to install 40 UPPs by 2014. By May 2013, 231 favelas had come under the UPP umbrella. The UPP program scored initial success expelling gangs, and won broad praise. But the expensive initiative expanded too far, too fast into dozens of favelas as state finances cratered, causing a devastating backslide that enabled gangs to recover some of their lost grip.
Vila Isabel is a middle-class neighbourhood in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Known for being one of the cradles of samba in Brazil, it is located in the subprefecture of Grande Tijuca. Its music-themed Boulevard 28 de Setembro celebrates the neighbourhood's long musical heritage. The neighbourhood was named in honour of Brazilian Princess Isabel, renowned for abolishing slavery in Brazil. It is home to Unidos de Vila Isabel, one of the most traditional samba schools in Rio de Janeiro.
Terceiro Comando was a Brazilian criminal organization engaged in drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro. It was founded in the early 1980s and is a break-away faction of the Comando Vermelho.
Brazilian militias, mainly in Rio de Janeiro, and some other cities of Brazil, are illegal mafia-like paramilitary groups made up of current and former police officers as well as Military Firefighters Corps officers, criminals, politicians, and military officers, operating also as a regular mafia by trade extortion and political influence.
Elias Pereira da Silva, also known as Elias Maluco, was one of Rio de Janeiro's most powerful drug traffickers. Maluco, a member of the criminal faction Comando Vermelho, commanded drug trafficking in thirty slums near Complexo do Alemão and Penha, Brazil. He was accused of killing over sixty people.
The Familia do Norte is a criminal faction that occupies northern Brazil and some regions in other countries such as: Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. It is considered the 3rd largest faction in Brazil, and the largest in the state of Amazonas, in addition to not having good relations with other Brazilian factions, having already entered into several faction wars.
The Guardians of the State, or the acronym GDE, is a Brazilian criminal faction. It operates in the state of Ceará.
The Vila Cruzeiro shootout took place on 24 May 2022 in the favela of the same name in Rio de Janeiro, during a joint operation by the Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE), the Federal Police and the Federal Highway Police that resulted in at least 26 people killed by gunshots or cutting objects. It was the second most lethal police operation in the city of Rio de Janeiro, second only to the Chacina do Jacarezinho, which occurred a year earlier.
The armed conflict for control of the favelas in Greater Rio de Janeiro or simply Civil conflict for control of the favelas is an ongoing conflict between Brazilian militias, organized criminal groups Comando Vermelho, Amigos dos Amigos, Terceiro Comando Puro and the Brazilian state.
Brazil