A powerful crime gang torched courthouses and threw small bombs at police stations for the third straight night in Brazil’s richest state of São Paulo on Wednesday, and the federal government offered to send in the army to quell the violence.
Police said gang members also attacked bank branches, burned buses or were caught with dynamite in at least five cities around the state. Four suspects were arrested.
There was less violence than in the two previous nights. Members of the First Command of the Capital gang attacked almost 100 targets in and around São Paulo, South America’s financial capital, late on Sunday and early Monday. Police have killed at least half a dozen suspects.
The unrest marks the third time in four months that the powerful organised crime group, known by its Portuguese acronym PCC, has stirred mayhem in the state.
The PCC called the latest round of attacks to demand prison furloughs for this weekend’s Fathers’ Day observation. Previous attacks protested pending transfers of PCC kingpins outside of São Paulo.
Polls show two-thirds of São Paulo state residents favour using the army to stop the attacks but state governor Claudio Lembo, a political rival of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, refused the federal government’s offer to send in troops. — Reuters