May 2006 São Paulo violence

Date	May 12–17; July 12–17, 2006
Location	São Paulo (state) and other parts of the country
Result	On May 17, state government takes control of the situation.

Belligerents

State of São Paulo

Military Police of São Paulo State
- ROTA
- GATE
Civil Police of São Paulo State
- GARRA/DEIC
Municipal Guards

Gang

Primeiro Comando da Capital

Commanders and leaders

Cláudio Lembo
Col. Elizeu Eclair Teixeira Borges

Marcola

Strength

100,000 police (military and civil)

unknown

Casualties and losses

30 police dead
28 police wounded
3 municipal guards dead and 8 wounded.

79 dead suspects

21 civilian deaths

State of São Paulo

Gang

The 2006 São Paulo violence outbreak began on the night of May 12, 2006 in São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America. It was the worst outbreak of violence which has been recorded in Brazilian history and was directed against security forces and a few civilian targets. By May 14 the attacks had spread to other Brazilian states including Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais and Bahia (this without direct links to the PCC criminal organisation).

The violence began after forty São Paulo police officers were killed by gang violence. Subsequently, the police officers sought to find the gang members behind the criminal acts. In the process, a violent situation arose, creating a clash between law enforcement officials and criminals and taking the lives of over 150 people.

The wave of violence, which was among the worst of the Brazilian history, received broad national and international media coverage, and this fact allied to the lack of information from the São Paulo state government caused mass panic among the population. The state governor, Cláudio Lembo, was harshly criticized by the press for the slow response to the violence, for the absence of communication between the security forces, for the lack of information, to the press and the general public, and for poor management of the crisis.

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Wikipedia