May 19, 2006
Interview of PCC leader from jail by mobile phone
Following a wave of unprecedented violence over the weekend in São Paulo - coordinated by inmates from inside the jails with their cell phones - Brazilian mobile operators are under pressure by their government to block signals in prisons, reports Cellular News.
Meanwhile, in a related article, the BBC, reports on "a row which has broken out over an interview which a journalist says he got with a gang leader - via mobile phone from a maximum security jail.
The Bandeirantes television channel says the man who spoke by phone to its reporter was Marcus Camacho, known as Marcola, the alleged leader of the gang known as the First Command of the Capital (PCC).
He told reporter Roberto Cabrini that the violence would never have happened had the state authorities respected the Brazilian constitution in their treatment of prisoners. The PCC was ready and had the means to attack again, he said.
The Sao Paulo authorities have ordered experts to authenticate the recording, insisting that Marcola is in isolation without a phone.
But correspondents say gang leaders often get phones smuggled in to them with the help of corrupt guards."
BBC slideshow of the riots in Brazil.
Related article: Brazil's mighty prison gangs
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