The Command for Hunting Communists ( Portuguese: ''Comando de Caça aos Comunistas'', CCC) was a

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

group active in Brazil during the first years of the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

(1964–1985).

Activities

The CCC, in the mid-1960s, began as an informal organization of rightist university students who allegedly monitored leftist students, or anyone they deemed as a communist. It was also composed by police officers and intellectuals favorable to the military regime. When the military regime took place, the Rádio MEC, a state-owned broadcasting station in Rio de Janeiro, was invaded and destroyed by members of the CCC. The CCC was also held responsible for the arsoning, on the same day, of the Rio headquarters of the National Union of Students (União Nacional dos Estudantes, UNE, in Portuguese), an organization usually deemed left-leaning by right-leaning individuals and groups. The CCC was also involved in the events known as ''Conflito da Rua Maria Antônia'' ("Maria Antônia street skirmish") in 1968, among students of the

Mackenzie University Mackenzie Presbyterian University (Portuguese: ''Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie'') is a private university in São Paulo, Brazil. The Mackenzie Presbyterian University is an institution of higher learning that has strong tradition and history ...

and University of São Paulo, Brazil's leading public university — where a student died. As a paramilitary group, the CCC became known to the general public when it staged attacks on leftist personalities outside the university milieu. What most provoked considerable public remarks was the invasion of the

Ruth Escobar Theatre Teatro Ruth Escobar is a theatre in São Paulo, Brazil. It is named for the actress, Ruth Escobar Maria Ruth dos Santos Escobar, known professionally as Ruth Escobar (March 31, 1935 – October 5, 2017) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian film and t ...

in São Paulo on July 18, 1968, where they beat the cast members of Chico Buarque's play ''Roda Viva''. Among them was actress Marília Pêra, who was hit with rubber truncheons and had to flee naked into the street, alongside other members of the female cast. According to the same source, the CCC was also responsible for a bomb attack on the Opinião Theatre in Rio de Janeiro on December 2 of the same year and for kidnapping, torturing and murdering of Antônio Henrique Pereira Neto, a Catholic priest of Recife and aide of archbishop

Helder Câmara Helder may refer to: * Den Helder or The Helder, a municipality and a city in the Netherlands * Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799, or expedition to the "Helder" People * Anne-Marie Helder (21st century), British singer-songwriter * Glen ...

, on May 26, 1969.

Military backing and demise

As the military government, at the end of 1968, dissolved habeas corpus and could arrest citizens without the right of defense, Brazilian repressive institutions such as the DOI-CODI holding the power of life and death over anyone deemed an enemy of the military regime, paramilitary groups such as CCC lost their '' raison d' étre'' and ceased their actions, its individual members quietly melding into the social support basis for the dictatorship. Gaspari, Elio (2014). ''A Ditadura Escancarada'', 2 ed. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Intrínseca, p. 263 & p. 526.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Command Of Communist Hunting Anti-communism in Brazil Paramilitary organisations based in Brazil Far-right politics in Brazil

Activities

Military backing and demise

See also

References