De la fragmentación de las estructuras criminales a una proto-mafia: un análisis del Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) en Sudamérica

Abstract

This article examines how the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) is structured as a particular model of criminal organization in South America, between what could be labelled as a third generation cartel and a proto-mafia. After the end of Colombian cartels, criminal organizations had to change the way they were structured. These changes resulted in a marked fragmentation that generated a multiplicity of small organizations in South America that managed to enter the drug trafficking market, driven by the “democratization” of cocaine. However, in the last decade Brazil has seen the opposite process. While in Latin America there was a shift from concentration to fragmentation - from the existence of cartels to the proliferation of a large number of small criminal structures - in Brazil, the PCC has ceased to be fragmented to concentrate and multiply its power, based on its presence and strength throughout the national territory, but also thanks to its transnationalization towards drug-producing countries such as Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru. The article examines if we are facing the emergence of a new generation of criminal structures, which perceive themselves as transnational companies and which adopt a different form than traditional cartels, much more flexible and capable of adapting to change, which makes them similar to a mafia, although they have not yet established themselves as such.