The Palácio do Planalto called and held this Friday, the 29th, an emergency meeting to respond to the Donald Trump government and discuss the United States’ attack on the two largest criminal factions of Brazilian origin, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho (CV).
The meeting was attended by ministers Dario Durigan, of Finance, and Wellington César, of Justice and Public Security, and the director general of the Federal Police, Andrei Passos Rodrigues.
Also present were advisors to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, and members of the Special Advisory of the Presidency of the Republic, including the team’s number two, Ambassador Audo Faleiro.
The meeting started in the morning and ended in the early afternoon. New meetings should take place in the ministries involved, according to participants, continuing the discussions.
The meeting helped set the tone for the government’s official response. Published by the Special Secretariat for Social Communication, the note resumes the defense of national sovereignty and criticizes the express requests of senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), pre-candidate for president for the opposition, and his brother, former deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, on the subject to American government authorities.
As Estadão showed, the Lula government had scheduled the meeting on the night of this Thursday, 28th, after the decision was made official by the US State Department and was already organizing to respond accordingly, in an act similar to what Lula promoted in the tariff of July 9, 2025.
The meeting also discussed the scope of the measure and fears of economic and financial impact. According to members of Brazilian diplomacy, there were manifestations of risk coming from the financial sector. The government sees risks to the PIX system, created by the Central Bank, which facilitated digital transactions and was already the target of an American commercial investigation. When it is about to be completed, this investigation could form the basis for new tariffs.
Above all, there is concern about what could happen to national banks, which could find themselves the target of sanctions from the US Treasury and banned from carrying out international operations, as occurred with three financial institutions in Mexico, accused of laundering cartel money.
“This is bad for Brazil. It could have consequences in the area of the financial system, in the area of the economy. It won’t solve anything in terms of fighting crime and could harm the economy”, summarized vice-president Geraldo Alckmin, in São Paulo.
The PCC and the CV were the most recent criminal organizations focused mainly on drug trafficking targeted by the State Department. Previously, the Trump administration adopted the measure against 14 Latin American groups, mainly powerful Mexican cartels.
