The Trump administration is considering classifying the two largest organized crime factions in Brazil as terrorist groups, after lobbying by two sons of former president Jair Bolsonaro — a prisoner and ally of Donald Trump —, according to Brazilian and North American authorities.
Public security has become one of the main concerns of Brazilian voters, and a possible classification could increase the visibility of the issue and politically benefit one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Flávio Bolsonaro.
He is running for president with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from the left, in October’s national elections and accuses Lula of being lenient in the fight against crime.
The proposal, discussed in recent weeks within the State Department, raised alarm in Brasília. The assessment of government members is that the US may try to interfere in the Brazilian electoral process to favor yet another Bolsonaro.
Last year, Trump resorted to tariffs and sanctions in an attempt to prevent Jair Bolsonaro from being arrested on charges of commanding an attempted coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula. The former president ended up convicted and is serving his sentence.
The Trump administration has already classified more than a dozen Latin American gangs as terrorist organizations, as part of a strategy to target criminal groups that, according to Washington, threaten US security — including large Mexican drug cartels. In practice, the designation makes it possible to impose financial restrictions on organizations and people linked to them.
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In the Brazilian case, however, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho are not protagonists in sending drugs to the United States. The focus is on exporting cocaine to Europe and other markets.
Even so, Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided to press on. On March 8, the day after Trump met with Latin American conservative leaders in Washington to discuss crime and trafficking, Rubio told the Brazilian foreign minister that the Trump administration intended to make the designation, according to sources familiar with the conversation.
Rubio also asked Minister Mauro Vieira for Brazil to formally recognize the factions as terrorist groups. Vieira responded that the Lula government would not make that decision, these sources reported.
The statements were made on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitive content of the conversations.
Rubio and Vieira are expected to meet again at a G7 meeting in France this Friday. If you have a private conversation, the topic should return to the table.
The State Department has not yet dropped the hammer, and any internal decision could be reversed.
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The ministry refused to comment on the plans, but admitted that Brazilian factions are on the radar. In a statement, he stated that the groups represent “significant threats to regional security due to their involvement in drug trafficking, violence and transnational crime”.
Palácio do Planalto also declined to comment on the possibility of designation by the USA.
A member of the Lula government said that Brazil and the United States have been negotiating, in recent weeks, joint measures against money laundering and arms trafficking linked to the factions. According to him, Trump’s initiative to label groups as terrorists could compromise this dialogue.
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In a statement, Flávio Bolsonaro declared that he did not support “foreign interference” to resolve the problem of factions in Brazil, but defended “international cooperation” on the issue.
Eduardo Bolsonaro did not respond to requests for comment before publication. After the report was released, he sent a note stating that his work is “parliamentary diplomacy”, and not lobbying. He also said that he was not trying to help his brother, but “to help ordinary Brazilians”.
Behind the scenes, close allies of Jair Bolsonaro have been working for months to convince American authorities that Brazilian factions represent a direct threat to US security and interests, according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations.
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Flávio Bolsonaro — in addition to being a presidential candidate and senator — was in Washington last spring, where he met with members of the White House and the State Department. According to these sources, he was accompanied by Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has spent long periods in the United States trying to bring Trump closer to his father and the family’s conservative movement.
During the trip, Flávio, then president of a security committee in the Senate, gave American authorities a report on the actions of the factions in Brazil and abroad. According to one of those present, the dossier detailed alleged arms trafficking and money laundering schemes.
In the Lula government, there is fear that the terrorism label will allow the US to impose sanctions on Brazilian banks that, without knowing it, have carried out operations with companies or people linked to the factions.
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Another concern is that the designation opens a loophole for unilateral US military actions in Brazilian territory, according to this source.
Trump has already used the framing of criminal groups as terrorists to justify a series of military actions in Latin America, including dozens of lethal attacks on vessels that he said, without providing evidence, were transporting drugs heading to the USA. The inclusion of Venezuelan organizations on this list was also used in the White House’s public arguments for the military operation that aimed to capture President Nicolás Maduro in January.
This month, American authorities said they had bombed a suspected drug trafficking training camp in Ecuador. A New York Times investigation showed, however, that the target was a farm.
Brazil has anti-terrorism legislation, but it does not classify drug trafficking as terrorism nor does it maintain its own list of terrorist groups. The country follows the decisions of the UN Security Council, applying sanctions to organizations that the entity officially includes as terrorists.
Labeling drug factions as terrorist groups would therefore be a profound change of orientation. And giving in to US pressure would go against Lula’s speech against American interference in internal affairs, which he usually points to as a threat to Brazilian sovereignty.
On the American side, two names are cited as main defenders of the measure: Darren Beattie, Trump’s recently appointed envoy to Brazil, and Ricardo Pita, advisor to the State Department.
Beattie, who has already claimed that the last Brazilian election was “stolen” from Bolsonaro, caused diplomatic embarrassment this month when he tried to visit the former president in prison — which led Brazil to revoke his visa.
Until recently, Beattie was responsible for the State Department’s public diplomacy area and worked to bring the Trump administration closer to far-right parties in other countries. In Trump’s first term, he was fired as a White House speechwriter after attending an event attended by white nationalists.
In May 2025, during a trip to Brazil, Ricardo Pita visited Bolsonaro while he was awaiting trial and posed for photos with the former president, according to posts by Eduardo Bolsonaro on social media.
Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for planning a coup d’état, but was transferred to house arrest due to health problems.
Despite resisting pressure to adhere to the terrorism label, Lula is trying to show Washington that he takes the problem of organized crime seriously.
Planalto stated that the president intends to discuss the fight against drug trafficking with Trump on an upcoming visit to the White House.
The offensive against drug cartels and factions has become one of the main political themes in Latin America, boosting right-wing parties that accuse the left of being complicit in crime.
In Brazil, Flávio Bolsonaro and other right-wing parliamentarians tried to advance projects to classify factions as terrorist organizations, but the proposals have so far failed.
“It is clear that the right wants to explore this issue politically”, assesses Fábio Kerche, professor of political science at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro. “They try to sell the idea that the left protects criminals.”
The PCC and Comando Vermelho have expanded across the country and today even reach remote communities in the Amazon, through violence and extortion. Brazilian authorities say the groups have also infiltrated the financial system, with participation in gas distributors, real estate businesses and cryptocurrency operations.
Although the direct fight against trafficking is largely the responsibility of states and municipalities, Lula reacted to political pressure by expanding the powers of the Federal Police to confront organized crime and confiscate property.
In practice, the issue can be decisive at the polls: a recent survey showed that crime and violence are the main concern of almost half of the population.
“The reality is that Lula is between a rock and a hard place”, summarizes Thomas Traumann, political analyst and former spokesman for a former left-wing president.
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