Organized Crime Fights for Control of Brazil Vote

With the second round of Brazil’s municipal elections set to take place on October 27, criminal groups are increasingly being caught using new financial methods to influence the results in addition to the violence they used traditionally to influence the political scene.

Brazilian parliamentarians reported an unprecedented volume of corruption, vote-buying and organized crime infiltration in the current voting period, the first round of voting took place on 6 October.

According to the Federal Police, authorities seized more than 50 million reais (about $8 million) in 2024 related to vote buying and the use of money by parties and candidates without declaring it to electoral authorities.

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The 2020 and 2022 election-related money grabs, when the country last held municipal and federal elections respectively, amounted to no more than 10 million reais (about $1.7 million) per election cycle, highlighting an unprecedented level of such irregularities this year.

Also, the Superior Electoral Court Joined similar evidence, and MPs emphasized it during their campaign speeches. “The concrete cases revealed that the First Command of the Capital (Primeiro Comando da Capital – CCP) is rooted in public contracts. I assume that they are also (involved) in the electoral campaign,” said legislator Kiko Celeguim in a speech reported by sheetalthough he presented no evidence.

The dependence of criminal groups on violence remains, using it for manipulate the most recent election through shootings, beatings or riots, or seeking to protect their interests by reducing voter turnout and protecting certain candidates. There was a more than 40% increase in the number of attacks against local officials in 2024, according to the non-profit organization Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).

On October 3, for example, three men on a motorcycle aggression and wounded a city council candidate in Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro state. Two days later, a gunman shot at the car of a councilor and mayoral candidate during a tent in Valparaíso, São Paulo state.

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These trends reflect the patterns of electoral violence that have been reported by ACLED in previous elections, but combined with a higher level of illicit money flows than ever before.

InSight Crime Analysis

Increased police focus on targeting illicit funds could explain record amount of money seized in 2024. Federal Police intensified its fight against electoral financial crimes this year, carrying out more than 60 operations focused on the involvement of organized crime before the first round of elections. This represents an increase of over 200% from the last municipal election in 2020.

The states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were worst affected by election-related violence in the months leading up to the elections, according to ACLED data. These states are home to the PCC and the Red Command (Comando Vermelho – Resume), respectively.

Criminal groups rely on violence to target local officials and influence elections in the two states that are home to Brazil’s most influential gangs. As a result, political actors fear moves such as coercion and mobility restrictions by criminal groups in certain communities to manipulate who is allowed to vote, according to a report by the Organization of American States (OAS).

Gangs may be more focused on financial efforts in regions such as the north, where their infiltration of elections is frequent bound to illegal logging and mining, for example. The lower number of violent incidents recorded in states other than Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo suggests that the situation varies across the country.