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OO RUEHRG
DE RUEHSO #0551/01 1382005
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O 182005Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5090
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 6229
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 2934
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 7119
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 2584
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 2257
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 1992
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 2812
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 1721
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL
RUEAWJC/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEABND/DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMIN HQ WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SAO PAULO 000551 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DS/IP/WHA, DS/ICI/PII, DS/DSS/OSAC, WHA/BSC 
NSC FOR CRONIN 
DEA FOR OEL/DESANTIS AND NIRL/LEHRER 
DEPT ALSO FOR WHA/PDA, DRL/PHD, INL, DS/IP/WHA, DS/DSS/ITA 
BRASILIA FOR RSO AND LEGAT; RIO DE JANEIRO FOR RSO 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KCRM CASC SOCI SNAR ASEC BR
SUBJECT: SAO PAULO POLICE STRIKE BACK 
 
REF: (A) Sao Paulo 532; (B) Sao Paulo 526; (C) Sao Paulo 319; (D) 
 
Sao Paulo4 2; (E) 05 Sao Paulo 975 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  In reaction to a wave of violence orchestrated 
by the organized crime gang First Capital Command (PCC) which left 
over 100 persons dead including over 40 law enforcement officers, 
Sao Paulo police stepped up patrols and checkpoints on Tuesday and 
Wednesday (May 16-17) in certain areas of the metropolitan area. 
The sweeps resulted in the deaths of nearly 40 suspected PCC 
members, and the arrests of up to a dozen others.  PCC elements, in 
turn, launched several new attacks (of lower intensity in comparison 
to recent events) on the night of Wednesday, May 17, burning eight 
buses across Sao Paulo state and tossing Molotov cocktails at police 
stations and schools.  No new police deaths have been reported. 
Meanwhile, a contract audio engineer working for the national 
legislature admitted to selling to the PCC recordings of secret 
testimony by high-ranking Sao Paulo police officials that outlined 
the State's plan to transfer incarcerated PCC leaders to more 
isolated facilities with higher levels of security.  In large part 
those transfers sparked the wave of violence that began on Friday, 
May 12, and lasted four days.  The PCC's known lawyers are also 
under fire for allegedly facilitating the corruption and aiding and 
abetting the gang's criminal activities.  State government officials 
are moving ahead with plans to block cellular telephone traffic near 
some prisons to weaken the PCC's capacity to mobilize and run 
illegal operations from the prison system, but prison workers are 
threatening a strike over pay, which could weaken an already 
precarious security situation.  (NOTE:  We have new information that 
the American Citizen prisoner reported in refs A and B was not, in 
fact, incarcerated at the time of the riots, but rather, had been 
released in March, with notice reaching the Consulate only 
yesterday. END NOTE.)  END SUMMARY. 
 
-------------------------------- 
POLICE PERSERVERANCE AND PAYBACK 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) As normalcy returned to Sao Paulo after a four-day wave of 
violence perpetrated by the organized crime gang PCC mostly against 
public security personnel and public buses (refs A-B), the Sao Paulo 
police regrouped, redeployed, and tried to regain control over areas 
of the cities most affected by the violence.  Over a twelve-hour 
period between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday early morning, the 
police reportedly arrested 24 persons and killed another 33 
suspected of involvement in the weekend attacks.  Overnight 
Wednesday, approximately eight more suspects were killed in several 
attacks against police positions in the northern, southern and 
eastern zones of Sao Paulo's metropolitan area.  On Wednesday night, 
the Band News television news service calculated that one suspect 
had been killed every two hours by police over a two-day period 
since the PCC halted most of its attacks on the evening of Monday, 
May 15.  State officials say they are trying to dismantle the PCC by 
searching for persons suspected of participation in the weekend 
attacks at checkpoints and barricades. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  In the northwestern suburb of Osasco, for example, police 
were seen searching motorists at several checkpoints Tuesday and 
Wednesday, with particular attention paid to drivers and passengers 
of the ubiquitous small motorcycles that buzz in and out of traffic 
lanes throughout greater Sao Paulo. (NOTE: Known as "motoboys," 
these cycle drivers provide much-needed courier services in the 
sprawling city where gridlock is a common and daily curse.  But the 
cycles are also used by criminals to rob drivers and passengers of 
vehicles stuck in traffic, and police say that several officers 
killed in Osasco were the targets of assassins riding with motoboys. 
 END NOTE.)  Subsequently, on Wednesday night, several armed 
individuals presumed to be associated with the PCC attacked a police 
station in Osasco, and at least one of the attackers was shot and 
killed by police.  Four other attacks on police stations throughout 
greater Sao Paulo were reported Wednesday night, but no officers 
 
SAO PAULO 00000551  002 OF 004 
 
 
appear to have been killed. 
 
¶4.  (U) Likewise, five buses were set on fire Wednesday night in two 
areas within metropolitan Sao Paulo's northern and southern zones. 
The two companies operating those lines took their remaining buses 
off the road overnight, but transportation appeared to be running 
normally for the Thursday morning commute.  Another two or three 
buses were reportedly torched overnight Wednesday in outlying cities 
within the state of Sao Paulo. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Human rights groups have begun to seek more details from 
the state government regarding the names and circumstances of 
suspects killed by police since the wave of violence began last 
Friday (May 12), and especially in the last few days after the 
supposed truce was called (ref. B).  While the state government has 
released the names of law enforcement personnel killed during this 
period, it has said almost nothing about the circumstances 
surrounding the deaths of suspects, other than to give aggregate 
statistics of those detained and of those killed.  The overall death 
toll of suspects at the hands of police since last Friday is 
hovering between 90 and 100.  (NOTE: There are also reports of 
another approximately 150 deaths associated with battles between PCC 
factions.  END NOTE.) Some police sources have told RSO that 
officers are acting within the bounds of the law, albeit perhaps 
with a more aggressive posture in the context of the casualties 
inflicted on their colleagues.  Other police officers have suggested 
that a certain amount of retribution upon known PCC members could 
and should be expected.  (NOTE:  An uncorroborated report is 
circulating that police have murdered family members of at least one 
gang leader in an act of pure revenge, an accusation the police 
deny.  If proven true, such an escalation of the current stand-off 
would almost certainly result in bloody retaliation by the PCC, and 
could truly spin the situation out of control.  END NOTE.) 
 
-------------------------------------- 
CORRUPTION, COLLUSION AND CALL-WAITING 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) The circumstances leading to the current conflagration in Sao 
Paulo are becoming clearer, as new evidence is uncovered regarding 
various players in this all too real Brazilian drama.  Specifically, 
on May 17, an audio technician who worked as a contract employee for 
the national house of the federal Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, 
admitted in public hearings that he had sold copies of recordings to 
the PCC that contained secret police testimony to a Parliamentary 
Investigative Committee (CPI) on arms trafficking outlining the 
planned transfer of PCC leaders to more secure prison facilities in 
an attempt to weaken the gang's organizational structure. 
 
¶7.  (U)  The recordings were apparently made on Wednesday, May 10, 
when two high-ranking Sao Paulo police officials testified regarding 
the planned prison transfers at a closed meeting of a congressional 
commission on arms trafficking.  The technician said he burned two 
CDs containing the testimony, and, for 200 Reals (less than USD 
100), handed them over to two of the PCC's known lawyers in a 
Brasilia shopping mall.  It is believed that the lawyers then gave 
the CDs to the PCC leadership or played the contents for the gang's 
leaders over the telephone.  On May 11, Sao Paulo prison officials 
transferred 765 suspected PCC members to isolated and more secure 
prison facilities in rural Sao Paulo state.  But police immediately 
suspected that the PCC's reputed leader, Marcos Willians Herba 
Camacho, or "Marcola" (see ref B), knew of the transfers in advance, 
which appears to have been true.  On Friday, May 12, he was 
transferred to facilities of the Anti-Organized Crime Unit (DEIC) of 
the Sao Paulo Military Police (PM) in the Santana district of 
northern Sao Paulo for questioning.  After violence obviously 
orchestrated by the PCC broke out later that night, he was 
transferred on Saturday to the maximum security prison at Presidente 
Bernardes in the far western part of the state.  The police and 
organs of Congress are investigating the technician's actions and 
those of the two attorneys accused of paying for the CDs and passing 
the privileged information to the PCC. 
 
SAO PAULO 00000551  003 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  At the same time, more attention is being paid to the 
allegation that the Sao Paulo State Government cut a deal with the 
PCC to end the attacks that have killed almost 150 people and 
brought much of Sao Paulo to a standstill on Monday afternoon (refs 
A-B).  While now admitting they had met with the PCC's lawyers on 
Sunday, May 14, and allowed the lawyers to see Marcola even though 
he was under special guard with no visitation privileges, State 
government officials (including Governor Claudio Lembo) continue to 
deny that they negotiated with the gang for peace (ref A).  Many in 
Brazil are skeptical, given the fact that the attacks and associated 
prison riots stopped rather suddenly on Monday.  Furthermore, 
television sets purchased by unknown parties have been delivered and 
set up in various prisons, and the color of prisoner uniforms has 
been changed - two conditions set out by Marcola during his first 
meeting with government officials last Friday.  Nonetheless, 
President Lula's point man on the crime wave, Minister for 
Institutional Relations Tarso Genro, has backed off his earlier 
criticism of Sao Paulo leaders (who belong to opposition parties) 
and said on Thursday that he believes no one in government made any 
deal with leaders of the organized crime ring.  More government 
investigations may take place on this issue, but in yet another 
bizarre twist, it appears Marcola himself has denied making a deal 
with government officials. 
 
¶9.  (U) On Wednesday evening, TV Bandeirantes ran a segment that 
purported to be a recorded interview with Marcola via cellular 
telephone from prison.  The segment showed a reporter conducting the 
interview in a sound booth by holding a cell phone to a microphone. 
During the interview, the man on the cell phone purporting to be 
Marcola admitted that he had planned and ordered over 100 attacks to 
begin last Friday, May 12, with the intention of calling attention 
to the plight and conditions of prisoners in the Sao Paulo 
penitentiary system.  He said that he did not order the killing of 
any police officers - claiming the murders were the acts of 
opportunists -- but that future actions may be forthcoming because 
the police are not willing to resolve their disputes with the PCC 
without resorting to brutality. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Sao Paulo Governor Lembo called for an investigation to 
authenticate the voice in the interview.  If the interview proves 
real, even more embarrassment will be heaped on the Sao Paulo prison 
system, because Marcola is currently in the Presidente Bernardes 
prison facility, which, until now, has been thought to be the most 
secure facility in Brazil and impenetrable to cellular phone 
transmissions.  A state judge has meanwhile ordered the National 
Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to suspend all cellular telephone 
transmissions for a period of 20 days in areas near six of Sao Paulo 
state's 144 prisons, in an attempt to curtail the planning and 
execution of criminal acts by incarcerated PCC leaders. 
 
--------------- 
WHO'S TO BLAME? 
--------------- 
 
¶11.  (U)  In an opinion poll released by Datafolha on Wednesday, May 
17, 55 percent of Sao Paulo residents said the criminal justice 
system was at fault for the current crisis, while 39 percent blamed 
President Lula, 37 percent blamed former Sao Paulo governor and 
current presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin, and 30 percent 
placed blame with current governor Claudio Lembo.  65 percent of 
those interviewed said they believed the government negotiated for 
peace with the PCC, but only 21 percent of those thought such a 
course of action was proper.  Only 17 percent felt that President 
Lula has made significant strides to combat crime, while 46 percent 
said that the president has not made an effort at all.  In reaction 
to the violence in Sao Paulo, the national Senate passed a package 
of 11 crime bills, including measures to hold prisoners liable for 
damage to prison facilities, restrictions on cell phone usage, and a 
requirement for lawyers to be searched before meeting with inmates. 
 
¶12.  (U) For his part, in an interview with the newspaper Folha de 
 
SAO PAULO 00000551  004 OF 004 
 
 
Sao Paulo, conservative Sao Paulo Governor Claudio Lembo called upon 
the "white elite" to change their attitudes toward social welfare. 
He said the "bourgeoisie" needed to open its pocketbooks and offer 
more education, jobs, and solidarity to the Brazilian "misery class" 
before there can be any meaningful reduction in crime.  He shrugged 
off comments made by his predecessor, current presidential candidate 
Geraldo Alckmin, which suggested Alckmin would have accepted federal 
assistance during the weekend crime wave.  Lembo said that had 
Alckmin still been in office, he would have done what he thought was 
best, and that is what Lembo did when he declined the federal 
government's offer to send more armed personnel to Sao Paul state to 
help quell the violence.  Lembo was more pointed in reacting to 
comments attributed to former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso 
that the Lembo administration was wrong if it made deals with the 
PCC.  Lembo said that Cardoso should have remained silent on a 
subject so sensitive and important about which he had no personal 
knowledge. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
COMMENT: SAO PAULO CONTINUES DAY BY DAY, NIGHT BY NIGHT 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Sao Paulo is operating normally day-to-day, but the 
nights are not yet in anyone's control.  Wednesday night's clashes 
and criminal acts appeared sporadic and almost random, and were 
certainly not as well-orchestrated as those of the weekend.  Some of 
the actions may have been residual, carried out by local PCC 
factions continuing the fight in their own neighborhoods, and some 
of them may have been opportunistic, conducted by unrelated criminal 
elements taking advantage of the sometimes chaotic situation.  The 
efforts to block cell phone transmissions may serve to undercut PCC 
operations in the short term, but there are reports that the gang is 
already using hand-held radios to overcome this barrier.  Further, a 
prison employees union in Sao Paulo is threatening a strike over pay 
and personal safety issues, making it even less likely that 
Paulistanos will feel comfortable - at least at the level prior to 
May 12 - with their city's security situation any time soon.  END 
COMMENT. 
 
¶14.  (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Brasilia. 
 
WOLFE