Gang Violence In Brazil
Some 60 people have been killed over the weekend in coordinated attacks on police and riots in prisons in Sao Paulo:
Violence has continued in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo where a wave of co-ordinated attacks over the weekend left more than 60 people dead.
Gangs hit police stations and patrols with machine guns and machetes, and prisoners rioted in dozens of jails…
…Authorities say the unrest is being directed from inside jail by a criminal gang after hundreds of its members were sent to maximum security prisons.
They’re also burning buses and banks, and holding several hundred hostages. These prison gangs are incredibly well organised, in large part due to the rampant corruption in the police forces in Brazil. The police are very badly paid and led, and very amenable to bribes. Most of my friends in Brazil tell me that when you are robbed you don’t call the police, because they’ll rob you a second time…
World Stuff | Mr. Bingley | 
May 15, 2006 7:50 am
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If Brazil can do it, so can we!
A friend of mine and her husband moved to Brazil to help start up a factory for the very large heavy manufacturing company they worked for. She’s a former classmate and Marine officer.
There were a few men in the factory who didn’t like the changes she was making, and didn’t like working for a woman. So they sent some thugs to her house. They pistol whipped her, left her tied up in the bathroom after she passed out, and kidnapped her husband.
In her case, the police were very helpful, capturing the thugs after her husband escaped, took them to court and sent them to jail.
So, they aren’t always all bad.
But it’s just more evidence that there are fewer and fewer countries that are safe to travel to anymore.
I’m glad they were able to help her, Mike. But you’re right, especially in Latin America the wheels are starting to come off.