U.S. Designates Two Brazilian Gangs ‘Terrorist Groups’

The U.S. State Department announced Thursday the designation of two gangs, the Commando Vermelho (CV) and the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), as terrorist organizations.

The announcement came two days after Senator Flávio Bolsonaro—the son of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro and a candidate in October’s presidential election—visited the White House and met with President Donald Trump.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry was informed of the designation only minutes before the announcement, according to Valor Econômico. Lula, speaking at an event in Brazil’s northeast Friday, said Washington was “playing games with our sovereignty.” Lula said that, while CV and PCC “are terrorists because they torment families, neighborhoods, and the city,” they “are not the sort of terrorists that Trump is looking for. Trump wants an Osama Bin Laden figure.”

Lula slammed the younger Bolsonaro for what called “the utter shamelessness to betray our homeland by traveling to the United States to beg for American intervention in Brazil.”

The PCC and CV are just two of several gangs that now control more territory in many Brazilian states than the Brazilian government itself. Other major factions which control territory in Brazil include the Terceiro Commando da Capital (TCC) and the various militías composed of former police officers, which run protection rackets throughout the countryside. Criminal ties between gangs and Brazilian politicians—left and right alike—have surfaced repeatedly in recent years. Last week, the Brazilian influencer Deolane Bezerra was arrested by São Paulo police on suspicion of running a money laundering operation for the PCC, while the Brazilian Central Bank is investigating whether Daniel Vorcaro, tied to both the Bolsonaro and Lula governments, ran a similar illicit operation. In February, the Brazilian politicians Domingos and Chiquinho Brazão were convicted for their role in hiring hitmen from Brazil’s gangs to assassinate the Rio politician Marielle Franco in 2018.