Comando Vermelho

Comando Vermelho (CV; lit. 'Red Command' or 'Red Commando') is a Brazilian criminal organization engaged primarily in drugs and arms trafficking. The group, originally known as Falange Vermelha ("Red Phalanx"), was formed in 1979 as an alliance between ordinary convicts and political prisoners (mainly members of left-wing urban guerrillas) who were imprisoned together during the 1964–1985 military dictatorship.

Influenced by radical left-wing ideologies, especially Marxism-Leninism and Maoism, they created codes of conduct and a structured hierarchy, and began employing urban guerrilla tactics against the state, while also practicing bank robberies, truckjackings and kidnappings as their main source of revenue; with their leaders controlling the organisation from inside the prisons. In the early 1980s, the group changed its name to Comando Vermelho and veered towards drug trafficking and territory control.

The Comando controls parts of Rio de Janeiro and has expanded to other states and into neighbouring countries. It has fought in several small-scale conflicts with both the government and rival groups such as Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Amigos dos Amigos (ADA) and Terceiro Comando (TC), the latter itself the result of a power struggle between Comando Vermelho leaders in the mid-1980s.

Overview

The group originally formed in the mid-late 1970s out of a prison alliance between common criminals and leftist guerrillas imprisoned together at Cândido Mendes Penal Institute, a maximum-security prison on the island of Ilha Grande. The prisoners formed the alliance to protect themselves from prison violence and guard-inflicted brutality. As the group coalesced, the common criminals were infused with leftist social justice ideals by the guerrillas. In 1979, prison officials labeled the alliance "Comando Vermelho", which the prisoners co-opted as their own.