Criminal gangs are now operating in more than a third of the municipalities in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, contributing to a rise in violence, according to a report released on Wednesday by a leading nonprofit organization.
As of 2024, gangs have a presence in 260 of the 772 municipalities in the region, a sharp increase from 178 last year, the Brazilian Forum of Public Security reported. The spread of these “mafia-like” organizations, particularly the Red Command and the First Capital Command (PCC), is worsening the situation in the Legal Amazon, which is increasingly viewed as a key area for transnational trafficking of illicit goods, the report notes.
The Legal Amazon spans nine Brazilian states and is home to the world’s largest hydrographic basin.
Of the 260 municipalities now under the influence of organized crime, the Red Command controls half, a significant jump from a quarter of the region last year, said Renato Sérgio de Lima, the president of the nonprofit. Red Command expanded into northern cities after the PCC seized control of the drug trafficking route via Ponta Porã, a municipality on the border with Paraguay. Since then, the Red Command has absorbed some local factions, which no longer operate independently, Lima explained.
The report suggests that the increasing monopolization of criminal activities by gangs could be a contributing factor to the 6.2% drop in violent deaths in the region between 2021 and 2023, as noted in the third edition of the “Cartographies of Violence in the Amazon” report.
