Brazil’s gangsters have been getting into politics

They want friendly officials to help them launder money
他们希望友好的官员帮助他们洗钱

2024年11月14日 08:53 上午 |圣保罗

AT LAST,JUSTICE came. On October 31st two former policemen were sentenced to a combined 138 years in prison for murdering Marielle Franco, a councillor they killed in Rio de Janeiro in 2018. A gay black woman from afavela, Ms Franco was an icon of Brazil’s left. She had made it her mission to expose links between local politicians and militias in Rio. The assassination shocked a nation inured to violence. She may have been killed for denouncing attempts by militia members to seize public land illegally and build on it.

正义终于来了。 10 月 31 日，两名前警察因谋杀玛丽埃尔·佛朗哥 (Marielle Franco) 而被判处总计 138 年监禁。玛丽埃尔·佛朗哥是他们于 2018 年在里约热内卢杀害的议员。弗朗哥女士是一名来自贫民窟的黑人同性恋女性，是巴西左翼的偶像。她的使命是揭露里约当地政客和民兵之间的联系。这次暗杀震惊了一个习惯于暴力的国家。她可能因谴责民兵成员非法夺取公共土地并在其上建设的企图而被杀。

Founded by former policemen, Rio’s militias gained prominence in the 1990s by hunting down drug traffickers, winning the support of terrified residents and forging links with local politicians. Yet today they extract a security tax in areas they control and charge residents for access to gas, internet, transport services and electricity. More recently, they have started trafficking the drugs themselves. Brazil’s criminal groups are walking the militias’ path in reverse. Gangs are increasingly funding politicians, paying off local prosecutors and bureaucrats, and laundering their assets through the legal economy.

里约民兵由前警察创建，在 20 世纪 90 年代通过追捕毒贩、赢得惊恐的居民的支持以及与当地政界人士建立联系而声名鹊起。然而如今，他们在自己控制的地区征收安全税，并向居民收取天然气、互联网、交通服务和电力的费用。最近，他们开始自己贩运毒品。巴西的犯罪集团正在走与民兵相反的道路。犯罪团伙越来越多地资助政客、贿赂当地检察官和官僚，并通过合法经济洗钱。

Take São Paulo, the country’s financial heartland. Unlike Rio, where the homicide rate runs at about 21 per 100,000, mainly because of turf wars between gangs and militias, São Paulo has long been relatively peaceful. That is because it is controlled by a single gang, the First Capital Command (PCC). Founded by inmates as a mutual-defence organisation after a prison massacre in 1992, thePCCexpanded as Brazil’s incarceration rate ballooned in the 2000s. Today it is South America’s largest gang, counting 40,000 members and 60,000 affiliates. It is increasingly involved in politics and white-collar crime. “Brazil is experiencing what Italy experienced in the 1990s,” says Lincoln Gakiya, the lead prosecutor against thePCCin São Paulo, as his 24-hour bodyguards stand nearby.

以该国的金融中心圣保罗为例。与里约不同，里约的凶杀率约为每 10 万人中 21 人，主要是由于帮派和民兵之间的地盘争夺战，而圣保罗长期以来一直相对和平。这是因为它由一个团伙——第一首都司令部（PCC）控制。 PCC 是 1992 年监狱大屠杀后由囚犯创立的互防组织，随着 2000 年代巴西监禁率的飙升，PCC 不断扩大。如今，它是南美最大的帮派，拥有 40,000 名成员和 60,000 名附属机构。它越来越多地参与政治和白领犯罪。 “巴西正在经历意大利在 20 世纪 90 年代所经历的事情，”圣保罗 PCC 首席检察官林肯·加基亚 (Lincoln Gakiya) 说道，他的 24 小时保镖就站在附近。

In April the city government took over two private bus operators, which carry more than 16m passengers a month, after an investigation led by Mr Gakiya found that the companies were being used to launder money for thePCC. The gang is also suspected of controlling petrol stations across the country and of getting involved in public health-care services, property, illegal gold-mining and rubbish collection. In 2004, when Mr Gakiya began investigating, he reckoned it was making less than $2m a year. By 2020, it was thought to be netting $1bn annually. Most of that comes from outside Brazil, as the gang’s drug-trafficking operations have expanded around the world.

4月份，在Gakiya先生领导的调查发现这两家公司被用来为PCC洗钱后，市政府接管了两家每月载客量超过1600万人次的私人巴士运营商。该团伙还涉嫌控制全国各地的加油站，并涉足公共医疗服务、房地产、非法金矿开采和垃圾收集等领域。 2004 年，当 Gakiya 先生开始调查时，他估计该公司的年收入不到 20 美元。到 2020 年，预计每年净收入将达到 10 亿美元。其中大部分来自巴西境外，因为该团伙的贩毒活动已扩展到世界各地。

On August 6th, in the run-up to local elections, São Paulo’s police arrested 20 people and carried out 60 search-and-seizure operations as part of an investigation into thePCC’s illegal campaign financing. Attacks against election officials were 29% higher between July and September than during the same period before local elections in 2022. Gangs are thought to have been behind the surge. “ThePCC doesn’t want to run a political party or overthrow the state,” says Mr Gakiya. “They want to obtain benefits by financing politicians.” This may include swaying public procurement bids for transport services or obtaining tax concessions forPCCbusinesses.

8 月 6 日，在地方选举前夕，圣保罗警方逮捕了 20 人，并进行了 60 次搜查和扣押行动，作为对 PCC 非法竞选资金调查的一部分。 7 月至 9 月期间，针对选举官员的袭击比 2022 年地方选举之前的同期增加了 29%。人们认为，袭击事件的幕后黑手是犯罪团伙。 “PCC 不想管理政党或推翻国家，”Gakiya 先生说。 “他们想通过资助政客来获取利益。”这可能包括影响运输服务的公共采购投标或为 PCC 企业获得税收优惠。

All of this has frightened President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Brazilians rank crime and drug trafficking as their top concern, along with corruption. More than a third expect a rise in gang-related murders in the next six months, according to a recent poll. On October 31st Lula, as the president is known, presented regional governors with a plan for tackling the problem. “Soon organised crime will be taking part in public tenders, appointing judges, appointing prosecutors, appointing politicians and candidates,” he warned.

所有这一切都让路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦总统感到害怕。巴西人将犯罪和贩毒以及腐败列为最关心的问题。根据最近的一项民意调查，超过三分之一的人预计未来六个月与帮派相关的谋杀案将会增加。 10 月 31 日，总统卢拉向各地区州长提出了解决这一问题的计划。他警告说：“很快，有组织犯罪将参与公开招标、任命法官、任命检察官、任命政治家和候选人。”

The government says it will integrate intelligence systems between investigative agencies to cross-refer data on crimes. It will grant the federal highway police powers to inspect railways and rivers, and will change the constitution to allocate money permanently to a national-security fund.

政府表示将整合调查机构之间的情报系统，以交叉引用犯罪数据。它将授予联邦公路警察检查铁路和河流的权力，并将修改宪法，将资金永久分配给国家安全基金。

Some governors have pushed back, suggesting that the federal government is taking away states’ rights to run security policy. Yet the lack of national integration is just what may be letting gangs infiltrate politics at lower levels. “What we are seeing is more penetration of local legislatures, mayoralties and local public-procurement offices,” says Robert Muggah of the Igarapé Institute, a think-tank in Rio. If Brazil wants to kick out the gangsters, it must first unite the governors.■

一些州长表示反对，暗示联邦政府正在剥夺各州执行安全政策的权利。然而，缺乏国家一体化可能正是帮派渗透到较低级别政治的原因。里约智库伊加拉佩研究所的罗伯特·穆加表示：“我们看到地方立法机构、市长和地方公共采购办公室的渗透率越来越高。”巴西要想赶走黑帮，首先必须团结州长。 ■