SAO PAULO (AP) — The U.S. State Department designated two Brazilian criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations on Thursday.
With Brazil’s presidential election set to take place in October, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro have called for the designation as they target President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s public security policies.
The two gangs — First Command of the Capital, or PCC, and Red Command, or CV — likely have more than 50,000 members combined, according to experts.
Designating criminal cartels in Latin America as foreign terrorist organizations is a strategy that Trump’s administration has used as it turns to military activity and other aggressive steps to combat drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere, notably carrying out a campaign of deadly boat strikes against those it calls “narcoterrorists” in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Lula, who is seeking reelection and is trying to boost his anti-crime credentials, has openly opposed labeling criminals as terrorists, while Bolsonaro’s supporters in Congress have publicly urged Trump to hit harder on the gangs.
Public security will likely be a wedge issue in Brazil’s presidential elections, when Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a handpicked heir of the former president, faces off against Lula. The 71-year-old Jair Bolsonaro cannot run as he is serving his 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt.
Experts have said neither Jair Bolsonaro nor Lula was hugely successful in fighting the two criminal groups, although Brazil’s federal police and prosecutors have conducted several raids against them in recent years. Authorities scored a major win against the PCC in August by dismantling part of its money laundering network that included gas stations, perfume shops and even a financial services company based in one of Sao Paulo’s main arteries.
Brazil’s federal police said then that their operation, known as Hidden Carbon, found companies linked to the PCC laundering at least 6 billion reals ($1.1 billion) in recent years.
The designation goes into effect on June 5.
