Lula says Brazil will not be treated like ‘tinpot country’ after US designates gangs as terrorists | Brazil

Brazil “will not be treated as a tin country,” the country’s president, Luiz Inácio da Silva, said Friday after the United States designated Brazil’s two largest criminal gangs, the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command, as foreign terrorist organizations.

The announcement Thursday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio is widely seen in Brazil as a setback for president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has fiercely opposed the appointment, and a boost for far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula’s chief rival in October’s presidential election.

Flávio, who was chosen to run to replace his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was banned from running because he was under house arrest after being found guilty of attempting a coup, spent this week in the United States. met with Donald Trump and Rubio.

In his speech at an event in Sergipe province, Lula said that he was “very saddened” by the news that “Marco Rubio, the US secretary from North America, said that our criminals here are terrorists and that the Americans could intervene.”

“We do not accept being treated like little children. We do not accept being treated like a tin country,” he added.

One expressionHe also called the Bolsonaro family “traitors” and “fake patriots.”

“It is deplorable that members of the Bolsonaro family once again go to the United States to advocate foreign intervention in Brazil, as they did regarding tariffs that have caused great damage to our country,” the president wrote.

Flávio Bolsonaro was at the lowest point of the campaign after he was caught on tape asking a banker accused of corruption for $26.8 million (£20 million) to finance a film about his father, causing a significant drop in his poll numbers.

Rubio explaining the definition wrote that the groups are “two of the most violent criminal organizations in Brazil. Their sphere of influence extends throughout our region and into our country”.

Both groups initially emerged in Brazilian prisons in response to torture and abuse. They are currently among the largest criminal organizations in Latin America; While they export cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia, Peru and Bolivia primarily to the United States and Europe, they are also expanding to other parts of the world.

Red Command is the older of the two, emerging from interactions between political prisoners imprisoned by the military dictatorship in the 1970s and common criminals in a prison in Rio de Janeiro. The PCC was founded in the 1990s at a prison in São Paulo, months after 111 inmates were killed when police suppressed a riot at another prison.

The two groups compete for control of drug distribution and trafficking routes, but operate in different ways: the PCC operates almost like a corporation, with well-defined hierarchies and corporate structure, while the Red Command has a more decentralized leadership structure and resembles the more openly violent and visible criminal groups of Mexico and Colombia. low profile, serious approach.

Lula had opposed the US proposal to classify these groups as terrorist organizations, calling the move an affront to Brazil’s sovereignty and asserting that the country was already actively fighting them. Just hours before the US announcement, Brazilian federal police launched a new operation targeting PCC infiltration of the country’s financial sector.

In a statement on Friday, the president said “any international cooperation to combat criminal groups would be welcomed… But we will not accept the use of arbitrary measures imposed from abroad as an excuse to attack our sovereignty and economy… National sovereignty is non-negotiable.”

On Thursday, Fávio Bolsonaro was quick to celebrate. “During our trip as a presidential candidate, we did more than Lula for the safety of Brazil and Brazilians,” he said. in question. Months ago, we were commenting on U.S. attacks on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. killed 196 peopleHe said he was “jealous” of those countries and suggested the United States could do something similar in Rio’s Guanabara Bay. “Wouldn’t you like to spend a few months here to help us fight these terrorist organizations?” He wrote to US defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

The US decision to classify these organizations as terrorist groups, following similar organization designations in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, had been widely anticipated for months, but was not mentioned when Trump met with Lula at the White House three weeks ago.

Lula said Friday that Rubio was not present during his three-hour meeting with Trump. “Mr. Marco Rubio was not there, probably because he was busy helping the son of a Bolsonarista who is running in elections in this country, someone who is not ashamed to go to the United States and betray our homeland and ask for American intervention in Brazil,” the president said.

Flávio’s visit to the White House last Tuesday was not on the president’s public schedule, and unlike Trump’s meeting with Lula, even the US President was in attendance. was praised The Brazilian leftist was not even mentioned by Trump in a social media post.

The next day, Flávio posted a photo of his meeting with Rubio and wrote: “We continue to strengthen international relations, defend freedom, democracy and the values ​​that unite millions of Brazilians and Americans.” The Secretary of State is seen as the Bolsonaro family’s main link to Trump.

There is still little clarity on the practical implications of this appointment. Analysts fear this could have financial repercussions innocent BraziliansBut the move is already widely interpreted as another example of the White House’s increasing pressure across the region in its so-called “war on drugs.” A. report The report, published this week by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, found that US pressure has led to an 18% increase in clashes between security forces and armed groups in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2025.