Cities in northeastern Brazil live third day of simultaneous criminal attacks

Images released by the Brazilian press and on social media showed scenes of buses and buildings on fire in nine cities in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, including the capital, Natal.

“I have never seen what is happening in my life. We went out to work (…) and we found ourselves in a situation like this. It is very sad,” Reinaldo Silva, a bricklayer who lives in Natal, told the AFP news agency. .

A total of 28 urban centers have been the target of riots since Tuesday. According to the authorities, this is a response by a criminal group to the tightening of control measures inside prisons.

As reported by the media ‘RTT’“in the spotlight is the Sindicato do Crime (SDC) faction, which runs the state prisons and was born in 2013 to confront the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), the most powerful criminal organization in Brazil.”

In addition, as reported by the outlet, the order for these attacks “would have come from the Alcaçuz prison, the largest prison in Rio Grande do Norte.”

Violence continues despite tougher measures

The violence is incessant despite the arrival since Wednesday of some 220 federal police officers, whose number could be multiplied to 800 if necessary, said the Minister of Justice and Security, Flávio Dino, in an interview with ”.

“We are not going to allow territories to be handed over to criminal practices,” he said.

On the other hand, the governor of Rio Grande do Norte, Fátima Bezerra, announced the creation of a crisis cabinet made up of heads of local powers.

So far, the leftist president Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva, from the same Workers’ Party (PT) as Bezerra, has not commented on the crisis.

The excesses have so far left two dead and two injured.

In Natal, a shed belonging to a garbage collection company, a supermarket and a gas station were set on fire. A train station was also attacked, according to the ‘G1’ news site.

So far, 67 people have been arrested, sources from the State Public Security Secretariat (Sesed) told AFP.

In addition, 17 firearms, 50 explosive devices, 22 gallons of gasoline, vehicles, ammunition and money were seized, among others, detailed Sesed.

The Government announced on Wednesday the dispatch to Rio Grande do Norte of a federal force of prison agents to coordinate the “monitoring and custody of prisoners.”

“Within the units, the situation is under control. There is no riot, no escape attempt, nothing out of the ordinary,” the state Penitentiary Administration Secretariat (SEAP) told AFP.

Conditions inside prisons

According to the authorities, the attacks are orchestrated from inside the prisons, where the prisoners protest their living conditions, with demands such as televisions and private visits.

In fact, the Secretary of Public Security of Rio Grande do Norte, Francisco Araújo, attributed the wave of attacks to requests from the inmates for a “series of privileges” that have not been granted.

“According to the claims, they want television, lighting system, intimate visit, things that the penitentiary system is not attending to because it is complying with the criminal execution law,” he said.

Rio Grande do Norte is one of the most violent states in the country. In 2017 there was a confrontation between rival gangs that left 27 dead.

According to RPP, “since that pitched battle, prison measures were tightened and intimate visits were suspended.”

This was expressed by Juliana Melo, a professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), to ‘O Globe’: “Within the prison system, the situation has only worsened since the massacre. Intimate visits remain prohibited, prisoners are given rotten food and cannot even have access to bleach to clean the cells, which are overcrowded. It has become a tinderbox “.

An affirmation that echoes that of several human rights organizations that denounce that the minimum conditions of the prisoners are not respected.

with AFP