Brazil begins crackdown on gang violence in over 40 northeast cities

Brazilian safety forces have waged a crackdown on legal gangs accused of torching automobiles, capturing up buildings and sowing terror in 4 nights of assaults on dozens of northeastern cities.

One suspect was killed and 17 arrested within the crackdown on the assaults on Friday, which authorities say have been organised by jailed gang leaders as a protest in opposition to jail circumstances and new restrictions on their actions from behind bars.

The safety operation focused gang members in three cities, together with Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte state, which has been on the centre of the unrest.

According to native media reviews, greater than 40 cities have been hit by the wave of violence, during which attackers have torched automobiles, vans, buses and a well being centre and left police cruisers, companies and authorities buildings riddled with bullets.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s authorities has despatched tons of of federal officers to bolster state safety forces.

The variety of reinforcements will attain 500 by Saturday, mentioned Rio Grande do Norte Governor Fatima Bezerra.

“We will win this fight, and we will get back to normal,” she wrote on Twitter.

Notorious prisons 

In all, three suspects have been killed in clashes with police and 97 have been arrested for the reason that violence erupted on Tuesday.

According to media reviews, investigators suspect certainly one of Brazil’s strongest organised crime teams, the First Capital Command, of involvement within the assaults.

Brazil’s severely overcrowded jail system is infamous for safety failures and corruption, permitting crime bosses to proceed operating their operations behind bars.

The jail system has a historical past of lethal riots and clashes between rival gangs.

Rio Grande do Norte’s prisons have been hit by allegations of extreme abuses, together with inmates being tortured and served rotting meals.

Source: AFP