Print

Mail

wiki links

Sao Paulo violence now under control, police say

Police registered a single, non-fatal attack against a police target on Friday, but said the violence that rocked this city and left 170 people dead over the past week was finally under control.

Still, the fear that gripped the city of 18 million during the unprecedented crime spree remained on Friday. Many residents said they worried the violence could break out again, with some saying the attacks only highlighted a public-safety system that broke down decades ago.

The death toll from daily gunbattles between police and suspected criminals, remained at 170 people: 107 suspected criminals, 41 police and prison guards, 18 inmates and four civilians, authorities said.

Police Colonel Elizeu Eclair told a news conference that the number of attacks had dropped because the "good citizens stayed home."

"It was easier to identify the bandits," Eclair said, calling the latest attack, "the work of second class-bandits."

Two men were arrested early on Friday after firing eight shots at the Criminal Institute in the city of Osasco in greater Sao Paulo, police said.

One of the weapons seized bore the inscription "PCC," the initials of the First Capital Command, the criminal organization that last week launched a wave of deadly attacks in anger over the transfer of its gang leaders to a remote lockup.

Across Sao Paulo's urban sprawl, police frisked motorists at checkpoints and patrolled on foot with their hands on their guns in a clampdown unprecedented in South America's largest city. Eclair said the emergency measures could stay in place for weeks.

Telephone companies also obeyed a court order to shut down cell phone towers near six prisons around Sao Paulo state, after authorities said jailed PCC members used cell phones to order their "soldiers" on the outside to attack.

Meanwhile, Brazilians were planning "Day of National Dignity" demonstrations for today in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and three other large cities to protest politicians' failure to crack down on organized crime.

Rosangela Cavalcante, 29, said she wanted to protest but was afraid authorities might turn on the crowd. She spent Friday searching six hospitals and two morgues for her missing brother, who disappeared amid the violence.

Cavalcante said Brazil's justice system is corrupt, available only to the rich and members of organized crime.
This story has been viewed 1924 times.