They decided to determine that the CV (Comando Vermelho) and PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) are terrorist organizations, this Thursday (28).
The decision comes after the visit of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), pre-candidate for President, to President Donald Trump, as well as other members of the American cabinet, such as Marco Rubio, from the State Department, and JD Vance, Vice President of the USA.
In an interview with journalists on Wednesday, Flávio had said that Rubio seemed to be in favor of the appointment. “He seemed more in favor of this,” said the pre-candidate, who said he spent around 30 minutes with the secretary.
The decision was already expected and one at the beginning of March showed that the hammer had already been dropped on this definition. According to The New York Times, in , the US was evaluating the designation after lobbying by two sons of former president Jair Bolsonaro, including Flávio and former federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro.
Despite this, the Lula government tried to prevent this designation from being imposed by the USA, for fear of influencing the elections and American interference in Brazil. Lula stated that, during the more than three-hour conversation he had with Trump around 20 days ago, the matter was not discussed, but the proposal for cooperation between the two countries was presented.
In March, at an event in Dallas, in the state of Texas, Flávio even said that, if he met President Donald Trump, he would not ask for the PCC and CV to be considered terrorists, as he would do that himself.
“I’m not going to ask Trump to designate anyone, I’m going to designate PCC and CV as terrorists. Since he didn’t have the courage to do so,” he said.
The classification of what is. The most accepted version is the one that classifies it as a deliberate violent action against civilians that aims to intimidate the population or the government, usually in association with a political and/or religious cause.
According to the Department of Defense, the US classifies terrorist groups when they meet certain criteria, such as violence and threat to American territory — the organizations, of course, have to be foreign. Before the announcement, the ministry had already stated that it considered both organizations to be a “danger” for the region.
With this designation, any type of support, blocking of resources and isolation of these organizations is criminalized. According to the department, members of these organizations cannot enter the United States and may be expelled if they are already in the country.
Furthermore, American banks with these members’ accounts must block funds linked to the group and report to the government. Brazil, however, disagrees with the denomination, since in Brazilian territory the designation of terrorism is applied to violent acts motivated by xenophobia, discrimination or prejudice to provoke widespread social terror.
Conversations about the possibility of designating Brazilian criminal factions as terrorists have been going on since last year.
Prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya, from the São Paulo Public Ministry, who participated in one of the meetings with members of the Trump administration, stated that the Americans did not give Brazil space to present its interpretation in relation to terrorism and only requested information regarding the functioning of the factions.
He argues that, despite the dangers of crimes committed by organizations, they are not terrorists, as the term would only be applied to groups that carry out acts of terror with political or ideological objectives.
Despite the efforts of the federal government, last year, right-wing Brazilian parliamentarians and governors asked the Trump administration to classify Comando Vermelho as a terrorist group. The Cláudio Castro (PL) government even sent a document to Washington with the request. The faction originates in Rio de Janeiro.
On the other hand, the Lula government worked to try to avoid this classification and, at the end of last year, sent a proposal for countries to sign an agreement to combat organized crime.
However, the US government considered the proposal inadequate and suggested, such as , that Brazil receive foreigners captured in the US and demanded a plan to end the PCC and CV.
In the Lula government’s view, the designation . The government also fears the political exploitation of the issue by Bolsonarists during the electoral campaign.
Our concern is that the laws not only stop factions, but also people and financial institutions that own or have knowledge of funds related to these organizations.
as to Sheet showed in a series of reports, that they exercise hegemony in at least 13 of them. The factions also expanded their operations beyond borders: the CV does business with at least eight Latin American countries, while the PCC has a presence in at least 16 nations.
Factions in the Trump administration’s sights
The CCP was included in 2021 on the list of designated organizations of Ofac (US Office of Foreign Assets Control), which results in the confiscation of all properties and assets in the US linked to its members and the prohibition of American institutions and citizens from maintaining any commercial relationship with the faction. But the criminal group was not classified as a terrorist organization.
During a visit to Brasília in May last year, the head of the State Department’s sanctions sector, David Gamble, formally requested that Brazil adopt the designation of terrorist organizations for the PCC and CV. Representatives of the Ministry of Justice.
The Brazilian Anti-Terrorism Law of 2016 defines terrorist acts as those motivated by “xenophobia, discrimination or prejudice based on race, color, ethnicity and religion, when committed with the purpose of provoking social or generalized terror, exposing people, property, public peace or public safety to danger”.
The definition of what constitutes terrorism varies in each country. The most interactionally accepted version is the one that classifies it as a deliberate violent action against civilians that aims to intimidate the population or the government, usually in association with a political and/or religious cause.
Right-wing governors and opposition parliamentarians authored by deputy Danilo Forte (União Brasil-CE) who equates Brazilian criminal factions with terrorist organizations.
