Bank robberies in Brazil take a crazy turn

The impact caused by the images in Brazil and the rest of the world is understandable. Bank robbers speeding away in their getaway vehicle, with hostages strapped to the roof and hood. The videos look grainy, hurriedly taken by neighboring residents as the scene unfolded beneath their feet.

But the violence in Araçatuba, a city of 200,000 on the western edge of São Paulo, is not an isolated case. It's just the latest in a string of bizarrely violent heists, with dozens of thieves shutting down an entire city center, planting numerous explosives and robbing several banks at once.

In Araçatuba, the attack began on the morning of August 30. Around 15 to 20 robbers went down to the city center and attacked three banks, according to media reports. After the attacks, some bystanders were detained and taken hostage, while others blocked streets near police stations and other main thoroughfares to clear escape routes. Around the city, as many as 20 explosive devices were found, as reported by the police, although it is not known with certainty at what point of the attack they were installed and how many of them were prepared to detonate. The police statement even said the gang used drones to monitor the response.

At the moment of fleeing the scene, there was an exchange of fire with the military police and the neighbors made some videos showing how the hostages were forced to parade down the street, tied to the outside of a vehicle, while the cars went at full speed. speed in between shots.

InSight Crime Analysis

These attacks have become known as “novo cangaço” (new struggle) in reference to a form of banditry that began in Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the northeast of Brazil suffered attacks from groups of traveling bandits that attacked entire cities, committing robberies, homicides and rapes. Experts point to widespread poverty and the exploitation of landowners as the cause of many of these actions.

There are parallels between the current situation in the country, given the well-demonstrated links between lack of economic opportunity, corruption and crime in Brazil.

But the attacks are no longer located in the northeast. Without counting a few exceptions, such as the November 2020 assaults in Criciúma, the most recent attacks by the novo cangaço have focused on the state of São Paulo. There were 23 bank robberies reported in 2020, 44 percent more than in 2019, according to data from the state public security secretariat. Although not all of them exhibited that degree of planning, two of them stood out.

In November 2020, some 20 men robbed banks in the city of Araraquara, São Paulo, also on that occasion leaving explosives behind and clashing with police. In July, thieves blew up a bank in the city of Botucatu and attempted to blow up others with dynamite. Also in that event, the hostages were forced to sit in the middle of the road and the robbers fled with only one dead on their side.

In 2017, an attack as spectacular as the previous ones occurred in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, near the border with Brazil, where dozens of armed assailants attacked the office of a security company that provided cash transportation services to banks. .

To date, several of these attacks have been linked to Brazil's main criminal group, the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital, PCC), including the Araraquara, Botucatu, and Paraguay robberies. Although the group has a presence throughout the national territory and in neighboring Paraguay, the PCC has its base of operations in São Paulo, which would allow it to strike in cities throughout the state.