HomeNewsBriefWomen in Brazil PCC Cell Take Part in Planning Killings
BRIEF

Women in Brazil PCC Cell Take Part in Planning Killings

BRAZIL / 11 NOV 2019 BY MARIA ALEJANDRA NAVARRETE EN

Female members of a cell of Brazil’s violent PCC prison gang ordered and carried out the killing of another woman, challenging the assumption that women only occupy the gang’s lowest rungs.

Eighteen people, including 13 members of the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC), were arrested in the September 3 killing of Érica Rodrigues Ribeiro. Among the captured during the October 31 operation targeting the group in the region of Cascalheira in the western state of Mato Grosso were eight women, some of whom were considered senior figures in the gang.

The kidnapping and then murder of Rodrigues, who was stabbed 40 times, was motivated by the fact that she had allegedly photographed herself sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl, and then sent the pictures to her husband, who was jailed for drug trafficking, according to police official Roberto Guimarães. The killing was orchestrated and executed by the PCC, he said.

SEE ALSO: PCC News and Profile 

The arrested gang members are also accused of involvement in the murder of Daniela Pereira, a 17-year-old girl who was killed by the PCC cell because she was an associate of the rival Red Command (Comando Vermelho - CV) prison gang.

InSight Crime Analysis

The outsize role female leaders played in this murder shows how women can exercise positions of power within the PCC and participate in gang justice -- usually meted out by men.

Many female gang members throughout Mato Grasso state, including those in positions of power, took part in what was described as a criminal court, a quasi-trial by video conference that ultimately led to the decision to kill Rodriguez, according to investigators.

While authorities did not provide many details about the people arrested in the killing, some of the women who were arrested had previously been accused of drug trafficking and murder.

According to investigators, the female leaders in this PCC cell direct criminal activities at the state level, instruct lower-ranking members in conduct, and provide information to gang leadership.

Traditionally, many women in Brazilian gangs like the PCC are believed to have have little authority, being most often connected to other members through close relationships, whether that be a brother or boyfriend -- for whom they perform domestic duties, secret messages in and out of jails, or even act as drug mules and street-level dealers. Yet women have been increasingly involved in the planning and execution of crimes.

SEE ALSO: Women in Guatemala: The New Faces of Extortion

The phenomenon is not limited to Brazil. In the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, street gangs have come to rely on women to run extortion rings and collect payments, since men are easily targeted by authorities. In Guatemala, nearly 800 women were in prison for extortion crimes in 2017, representing about a third of the female prison population.

The eight women involved in the stabbing death of Rodrigues also reveals that women can ascend to leadership roles and are willing to participate in violent acts.

Antonio Jesus Silva, a professor of anthropology at the Universidad Estacio de Sá, in Río de Janeiro, said that these acts debunk stereotypes about women and gangs. He told El Pais that women “can be as fierce as men, and as fascinated with power, arms and violence”

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BRAZIL / 13 JAN 2022

Three shipments of cocaine were caught on the same day as they were about to head to France, Spain and…

ECUADOR / 10 MAY 2022

Ecuador has seen its sixth large-scale prison massacre since the start of 2021, with at least 44 prisoners being killed…

ECUADOR / 21 JUL 2022

Ecuador's complicated gang violence has been worsened by the bloody rise of R7, a small-time but brutal gang.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…