SAO PAULO (AP) — The U.S. State Department announced it will designate two Brazilian criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations on Thursday, a move that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has repeatedly said he will interpret as interference favoring his rival, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, in October’s presidential elections.Ahead of elections, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro and of his presidential hopeful son have called for the designation for the two gangs — First Command of the Capital, or PCC, and Red Command, or CV — as they accuse Lula of not fighting those groups effectively. Both groups likely have more than 50,000 members combined, according to experts, who also say most of their connections are in Europe rather than in North America. 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.
“CV and PCC are two of the most violent criminal organizations in Brazil. Together, they command thousands of members and have orchestrated brutal attacks against Brazilian police officers, public officials, and civilians,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “Their influence and illicit networks extend far beyond Brazil’s borders, across our region and into our country.”
