Brazil: When the State Loses the Streets
I’ve worked in Rio with a special operations anti-gang unit (BOPE). I’ve walked the favelas with locals who risk their lives just to get in and out of their own neighborhoods. When the government “takes a hard stance,” it means armored vehicles rolling into some of the most densely packed urban terrain on earth—with families caught in the crossfire.
What you need to know
Red Command (Comando Vermelho) began in Brazil’s prisons in the late ’70s with Marxist roots, and evolved into one of the most powerful criminal factions on the planet.
They run cocaine and marijuana retail/wholesale, weapons trafficking, carjackings, armored-car robberies, and extortion.
They impose “parallel governance”: if you live in their turf, they are the government.
The terrain is a nightmare for police: alleyways too tight for vehicles, multi-story concrete warrens, countless blind corners. Even with BOPE, operations are high-risk and civilian casualties mount.
“In Rio’s favelas, the state doesn’t always rule. Whoever controls the corner rules.”
Why Americans should care: Red Command is transnational. A lot of their product goes to Europe, but some flows toward the U.S. via routes that snake Brazil → Venezuela or Brazil → Bolivia → Ecuador → Colombia → north. When state power erodes, cartels fill the vacuum—and the poison travels.
A Hemisphere Pushing Back
Say what you will, but a tougher U.S. stance on cartels has emboldened several Latin American governments:
Ecuador (Jan): Declared internal armed conflict; designated 22 gangs as terrorists; later the U.S. added two to our own lists.
Guatemala (Oct 21): Congress passed an anti-gang law, formally branding MS-13 and Barrio 18 as terror organizations with stiffer penalties.
Honduras: Reframed parts of narco-trafficking as terrorism in the penal code.
Nicaragua: Cracking down—not on cartels—but on churches and religious NGOs. Backwards priorities, and they’re proud of it.
Bottom line: The El Salvador model (mass gang arrests, unapologetic enforcement) is contagious. Some countries are finally acting like cartels are terrorists. Because they are.
