VZCZCXRO2400
PP RUEHRG
DE RUEHSO #0742/01 1881652
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 071652Z JUL 06
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5369
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 6456
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 3023
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 7245
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 2665
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 2337
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 2062
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 2899
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 1790
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 05 SAO PAULO 000742 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DS/IP/WHA, DS/ICI/PII, DS/DSS/OSAC, WHA/BSC 
NSC FOR FEARS 
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: PCC KILLS PRISON GUARDS AT HOME, POLICE NAB DOZENS 
 
REF: (A) SAO PAULO 708; (B) SAO PAULO 526; (C) BRASILIA 496; (D) SAO 
 
PAULO 215; (E) SAO PAULO 319 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:   Ten days after a raid that left 13 of their 
compatriots dead and five apprehended, the PCC has carried out 
almost daily, precise assassinations and attempts on prison guards 
at their homes around Sao Paulo.  Five guards have been killed and 
several other law enforcement personnel and civilians have been 
injured or killed in the attacks that began on June 28.  At the same 
time, Sao Paulo police, perhaps chastened by accusations of human 
rights abuses when they killed 13 suspects in a preemptive raid on 
June 26 (ref A), successfully quelled at least one major prison riot 
and conducted two large-scale, multi-faceted raids with no shots 
fired, resulting in the arrests of some two dozen suspected PCC 
members, at least one of significance.  One AMCIT is currently 
housed in a maximum security prison involved in one of several 
recent prison riots, but we were informed by officials that he was 
NOT/NOT in an area of the facilities affected by violence, but 
rather, in a separate part of the complex 500 meters from the 
affected prison.  The Brazilian Federal Police stand poised to 
authorize prison guards to carry weapons off-duty, while human 
rights groups are reaching out to the prison guard community in a 
show of solidarity against the violence they face every day both at 
work, and now at home. But low salaries and dangerous work 
conditions continue to be the bane of prison guards, and lack of 
resources and failing infrastructure in general will test the 
sustainability of the recent push against the PCC by Sao Paulo 
public security forces.  END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
SIX SAO PAULO PRISON GUARDS KILLED IN 10 DAYS 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U)  Six prison guards have been killed in separate incidents 
around Sao Paulo in the 10 days following a pre-emptive raid by 
state security forces that left 13 suspected members of the 
organized crime ring First Capital Command (PCC) dead and five in 
custody (ref A).  The police raid of June 26, which is being 
portrayed by some as an affront to human rights, was carried out 
against a group said to be plotting an assassination attempt on 
prison guards as they changed shifts.  It is reported that the PCC 
leadership ordered affiliates in certain neighborhoods to kill 
between five and fifteen guards over a period of ten days.  While 
the police action was successful in thwarting an attack on June 26, 
PCC elements have murdered five guards and a police officer, and 
have made attempts on the lives of at least three others in the 10 
days that have followed.  The sixth guard killed this week was shot 
during the escape of eight inmates from a prison within the city of 
Sao Paulo on Wednesday, July 5. 
 
---------------------------------- 
NOT SAFE AT WORK, NOT SAFE AT HOME 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  On Wednesday, June 28, a prison guard was killed on the 
doorstep of his home in Itapecerica da Serra, a municipality 
southwest of the Sao Paulo metropolis.  A 21-year old male was 
immediately apprehended in the murder of Nilton Celestino, and one 
of two additional suspects has also been arrested.  Police said that 
the suspects were ordered by the PCC to kill the guard.  (NOTE: 
Judging by newspaper photos of the Celestino's home, it appears he 
lived in "favela" conditions (shanty slums) similar to many PCC 
members and their drug clients. END NOTE).  The next day, another 
guard, Gilmar Francisco da Silva, was killed at the entry to his 
home in Sao Paulo's western zone. 
 
¶4.  (U)  Meanwhile, police intercepted telephone communications that 
exposed a plot to kill five guards at the Presidente Venceslau 2 
prison in the interior of Sao Paulo state, where 400 PCC leaders are 
being held in relative isolation.  Police reported that the 
 
SAO PAULO 00000742  002 OF 005 
 
 
assassinations were to have taken place on a public bus transporting 
the guards to work -- the same modus operandi used in the foiled 
plot of June 26.  Instead, police escorted the bus on its route 
without incident. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  On Saturday, July 1, Eduardo Rodrigues, a guard at the 
women's prison in Sant'Ana on Sao Paulo's near-north side, was shot 
and killed near his home on the west side of Sao Paulo.  Two men 
approached the off-duty guard as he entered a television repair shop 
to pick up his surround-sound system.  The men shot Rodrigues twice 
in the head and twice more in the body before disappearing.  The 
women's prison where Rodrigues worked is located near the site of 
the now-dismantled Carandiru prison, the infamous site of a police 
massacre of 111 rioting prisoners in 1992 (refs C and D).  The state 
Secretariat of Penitentiary Administration (SAP) was moved to the 
 
SIPDIS 
grounds of the women's prison at Sant'Ana late last year (ref E), 
and recent reports indicate that security has been tightened 
considerably around the offices of the Secretary of Prisons. 
 
¶6.  (U)  The night before Rodrigues was killed, a man was shot in 
the head three times by three assailants as he returned home with 
his wife in the municipality of Barueri, just outside the northwest 
corner of Sao Paulo proper.  The murdered man lived near a jail 
worker, who police believe was the intended target of the 
assassination. 
 
¶7.  (U)  On Sunday, July 2, Otacilio do Couto, an off-duty prison 
guard was killed in a drive-by shooting in the city's northern zone, 
and another guard survived an attempt on his life in the 
municipality of Guarulhos, near the international airport on Sao 
Paulo's far-north side.  An officer with the Military Police (PM) 
was also gunned-down that day on the east side of the city.  In the 
early morning hours of Thursday, July 6, an off-duty prison guard 
was shot eight times while in the Liberdade neighborhood of central 
Sao Paulo; amazingly he was not killed and remains hospitalized. 
But, on Friday morning July 7, a guard was shot and killed by 
assailants in a car outside of his home in the Casa Verde 
neighborhood of northern Sao Paulo. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
PRISON GUARDS BEGIN "PARALYSIS" ACTIONS 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  In the jailbreak of July 5, eight prisoners overpowered a 
cook and obtained at least one firearm, shooting to death both a 
guard and another prison worker.  Two of the six escapees were 
captured.  The day before the incident, the prison guard union 
Sifuspesp issued a proclamation stating that in the event of the 
killing of any guard, union members would cause a "paralysis" 
throughout the prison system for 24 hours.  The union said that 
guards on post would refuse entry to lawyers and visitors, and would 
prevent the delivery to prisoners of sacks of clothing and food from 
their families known as "jumbos."  Such work-actions took place at 
some 25 prisons beginning on Thursday, July 6.  Twenty-five of the 
state's 144 prisons had already been suffering from a prison guard 
strike, and an earlier strike was cancelled over the weekend for 
fear that inmates would have rebelled if their weekend visitations 
were to have been cut off. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  Sao Paulo's two prison employee unions are reeling from 
the recent attacks and from an onslaught of death threats in the 
wake of the May crime wave, often made directly to prison guards via 
telephone.  Twelve prison guards have been killed so far in 2006, 
including two killed during the prison riots associated with the 
PCC's crime wave of May.  By comparison, only two guards were killed 
during the entirety of 2005. 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Unions are also reeling from a new investigation 
launched by the special anti-organized crime unit (DEIC) of the 
Military Police against five prison guards accused of aiding and 
abetting the PCC and helping plan escapes from prison.  DEIC 
investigators used wiretaps to uncover the plot, and an unidentified 
 
SAO PAULO 00000742  003 OF 005 
 
 
officer told one local newspaper that the investigation is expanding 
in an effort to determine who was at the head of the scheme. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS CRITICAL, BUT RALLY WITH GUARDS 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  In the days immediately following the killing of 13 PCC 
suspects by Sao Paulo police, concern was raised regarding possible 
human rights violations given the number of suspects killed and the 
manner in which they were killed: the suspects were shot in a 
preemptive raid, apparently while sitting or standing in small 
groups in parking lots and in cars (ref A).  Perhaps more troubling 
for Brazilian media outlets was a surprise judicial decree from the 
municipality where the killings occurred, in which the judge ordered 
complete secrecy regarding the investigation into the deaths, 
including police records and autopsy reports.  Leading opposition 
presidential candidate and former governor of Sao Paulo State 
Geraldo Alckmin squarely endorsed the police's anticipatory strike 
against the PCC, saying that Sao Paulo is in a climate of war, and 
"we have to win the battle every day with a prepared police force." 
But the judicial gag order fueled the fires of conspiracy theory 
with whispers (and sometimes shouts) of executions and retribution, 
especially among federal officials in the capital, some of whom may 
also have political motivation to paint the state of Alckmin's State 
in a negative light.  For example, Luiz Greenhalgh, head of the 
Congressional Human Rights Commission, went so far as to claim that 
the Sao Paulo police had carried out executions according to a 
predetermined list, which has yet not been determined to be true or 
false. 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  However, local criticism softened as prison guards 
started turning up murdered on their own doorsteps, and new stories 
surfaced about the further nefarious intent and the apparent reach 
of the PCC.  The daily newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo reported that 
the PCC leadership is building up the organization's cash reserves 
by requiring each member out on the street to bump up his monthly 
"contribution" to the gang from 600 Reals (approximately $300 US) to 
1000 Reals (approximately $500 US).  With the extra cash, the PCC 
leadership is reportedly prepared to pay out a stipend to the 
families of gang members killed by police.  Estado also reported 
over the weekend that the PCC maintains a veritable banking system, 
even giving out loans to its members to finance drug trafficking. 
Further, the daily paper Folha reported that the PCC is giving milk, 
gas and foodstuffs to 200 families living in the favelas in which 
the gang deals drugs. 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  Stories also surfaced about bold plans of the PCC to 
destroy the state's prisons.  It was widely reported that the PCC is 
now using lawyers as "courier pigeons" to deliver messages and keep 
its lines of communications open as prison authorities have managed 
to limit PCC leaders' access to cellular telephones at the toughest 
of the state's prisons.  It was also reported that a 
non-governmental organization (NGO) known as the New Order is, in 
fact, an arm of the PCC, and has been used by the gang, through its 
lawyers, as an intermediary to negotiate with authorities during 
prison riots and to provide assistance to inmates.  The Military 
Police, meanwhile, was forced to put down a riot on Friday, June 30, 
in the maximum security prison Presidente Bernardes, where the PCC's 
titular leader known as Marcola is housed, but not until prisoners 
broke the windows of 136 cells, using the glass as makeshift knives, 
and caused other major damage.  Seventy members of the Military 
Police (PM) "shock troops" were able to quell the violence and 
restore order.  One AMCIT is currently housed in Presidente 
Bernardes Prison, but we were informed by officials that he was 
NOT/NOT in an area of the facilities affected by violence, but 
rather, in a separate part of the complex 500 meters from the 
affected prison.  See also septel regarding the ongoing situation at 
Araraquara prison in Northern Sao Paulo state, where 1400 inmates 
are being housed in a prison yard designed for 160. 
 
¶14.  (SBU)  But it is the assassinations of prison guards not 
 
SAO PAULO 00000742  004 OF 005 
 
 
accused of any wrong-doing but simply coming and going to work and 
home that has prompted an unusual expression of common good will; 
several leading human rights NGOs held a rally side-by-side with 
prison guards on Thursday, July 6, to denounce the violence in the 
prisons and the attacks on prison employees by the PCC.  According 
to organizers, the goal of the rally was to stand in solidarity with 
the families of the murdered prison guards, and to help the unions 
find a way for their employees to work in relative security.  The 
rally was organized by the National Movement for Human Rights 
(MNDH), with the participation of the Commission for Human Rights of 
the state Assembly, the Bar Association of Brazil (OAB), and various 
church groups. 
 
¶15.  (SBU)  COMMENT:  The possibility of human rights abuses at the 
hands of Sao Paulo state law enforcement personnel on June 26 cannot 
be overlooked.  In fact, the secrecy surrounding the investigation 
parallels that which surrounds the follow-up to the medical 
examiner's investigations of the May shootings, where the details of 
between 250 and 400 deaths by police are still in question.  We are 
attempting to gain clearer insight into the process of investigating 
the deaths, and what determinations, if any, have been made.  In the 
meantime, we are meeting with leading human rights representatives 
of the state to discuss the matter and their work in general, as we 
have already met with the Secretary for Public Security to discuss 
the possibility of offering USG technical assistance for law 
enforcement training.  We will report our findings and 
recommendations in septels.  Further, it is worth noting that Ariel 
de Castro Alves, the director of the National Movement for Human 
Rights (MNDH) and coordinator for the solidarity rally mentioned 
above, is one of our International Visitor Program (IVP) 
participants for 2006/07.  END COMMENT. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT, AND PASS THE AMUNITION 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶16.  (SBU)  While prison guards and their unions are finding new 
allies in the form of sympathetic human rights activists, the 
federal police seem on the verge of giving them a tool for which 
they have been asking for some time: the authority to carry weapons 
off-duty.  The director of the Federal Police (PF) is said to be 
close to finalizing rules to authorize all prison guards in Brazil 
to carry weapons, and the Minister of Justice said yesterday that 
the current Statute of Disarmament, while strict in limitations, 
does allow for the adoption of such rules.  Minister Marcio Bastos 
said "In this difficult situation in Sao Paulo, prison guards have 
the right, and now the necessity, to keep weapons."  Reports 
indicate that guards over the age of 25 will be able to register for 
such a license upon proving mental fitness and a lack of criminal 
record.  The licenses would need to be renewed periodically.  The 
move to give prison guards the authority to carry a weapon has been 
vocally supported both by Sao Paulo Governor Claudio Lembo, and one 
of the state's Senators Aloizio Mercadante, who are of opposing 
parties.  It has been reported that some guards have been carrying 
private weapons illegally, in an attempt to gain some sense of 
personal security when off-duty. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
ANOTHER BIG RAID: BUT THIS TIME THE COPS MAKE ARRESTS 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶17.  (SBU)  On Sunday morning, July 2, 230 police officers under the 
command of the state's Shock Troops (CPChoq) descended on the 
municipality of Peruibe after intercepting telephone calls that 
seemed to indicate a major PCC meeting was to take place there to 
plan for future hostile actions against security forces.  Police 
could not, however, determine the exact location of the expected 
meeting, which they estimated was to have involved up to seventy 
leaders of the PCC.  The CPChoq decided to move in on the area, and 
with the help of local Military Police (PM) and highway patrol, 
cordoned off a 12-block area and conducted vehicle searches for 
weapons.  Police commanders proudly displayed 14 suspected PCC 
 
SAO PAULO 00000742  005 OF 005 
 
 
members arrested in the sweep, along with weapons and cell phones. 
Highlighting the most obvious difference between this raid and the 
one which took place the week before, the commander of the CPChoq 
stated definitively, "The arrests occurred without the need to fire 
one single shot." 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
MUZZLED SCREAMS: TOP PCC TAX COLLECTOR ARRESTED 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶18.  On an interesting and related note, a top tax collector -- and 
perhaps pamphleteer -- of the PCC was arrested Wednesday, July 5, in 
the city of Campinas, approximately 60 miles north of Sao Paulo. 
Valdeci Francisco Costa, age 43, is thought by police to be in the 
upper ranks of the PCC criminal organization, and the chief accounts 
manager for the gang's activities outside of the Sao Paulo 
metropolitan area.  Known as "Ci" ("Chee") and also "Notebook," 
Costa is said to have collected "contributions" from members both 
inside and outside of the state's outlying prisons, primarily in 
Riberao Preto, Sorocaba and Campinas. Police report that Costa was 
arrested with 13 others, including his 32 year old wife Elisandra 
Alves Verdelho Costa.  A police captain in Campinas reported that 
while four accounts in Costa's name have been seized by police, the 
amount of money he was ultimately responsible for moving has yet to 
be determined.  The police also say Costa is responsible for 
ordering several murders and controlling drug trafficking in his 
region, and they found over 60 cell phones and various accounting 
documents related to PCC activities among his possessions.  Police 
also found thousands of pamphlets entitled "The Screams of the 
Oppressed," which assert that Brazilian prisoners have been 
forgotten by the courts, the press, and the PSDB -- the political 
party of former governor and current presidential candidate Geraldo 
Alckmin. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
CAN LAW ENFORCEMENT SUSTAIN THE PRESSURE ON THE PCC? 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶19.  (SBU) COMMENT:  We continue to wonder how long this war between 
the PCC and the Sao Paulo Police can go on, and will the skirmishes 
of the past two weeks escalate again into full blown street warfare 
as was seen in May.    Sao Paulo Police seem to have gained real 
ground in their ability to isolate the PCC leadership, disrupt the 
gang's lines of communication, and penetrate the PCC communications 
network for the effective use of intelligence, the possible human 
rights violation of June 26 notwithstanding.  But even with that 
event taken into consideration in the worst light, every police 
action since May seems better planned, better coordinated, and 
better executed than the last, with fewer shots fired (or none, as 
in the last two raids) and more arrests of top PCC personnel.  But 
at the same time, we have been told that the PCC may have obtained 
records of a great number of prison guards, thus making it that much 
easier to find them at home and assassinate them at will.  Giving 
the prison guards guns may help these embattled foot soldiers feel a 
little more in control, but it will not ease the frustration of 
being paid about $600 US per month, or of being forced to work in 
stiflingly overcrowded and inherently dangerous spaces.  Sustained 
capacity to keep up the current pace of intelligence gathering and 
raids, as well as to keep the PCC leaders well in hand, is 
questionable, given budget constraints and faulty existing 
infrastructure. And if prison discipline falters, the entire law 
enforcement effort will weaken; the PCC knows that and is obviously 
trying to exploit this weakness quickly.  Meanwhile, the residents 
of Sao Paulo go on with their lives largely unaffected other than to 
marvel at the daily news reports of prison riots and prison breaks, 
and deadly attacks both on and by officers of the law.  They will 
have to wait, and watch, to see which side has the greatest stamina 
in the end.  END COMMENT. 
 
MCMULLEN