Brazil Failed (Again) to Confront Organized Crime

The Trump administration labeled Brazil’s CV and PCC as terrorist organizations, and a spotlight was pointed straight at Brasília (our Capital), and at the embarrassing habit this shit government has of acting like semantics matter more than dead bodies.

Marco Rubio, now running State, said the obvious about these groups. They’re brutally violent, they don’t stop at Brazil’s borders, and they move money, weapons, drugs, people, influence… They export chaos through many regions and, yes, into the US.

And this wasn’t a surprise for any sane Brazilian. In 2025, David Gamble, the State Department’s sanctions coordinator at the time, came to Brazil with a proposal tied to treating these factions as terrorist groups so the U.S. could hit them harder with sanctions. Reuters reported Lula’s government rejected that approach and repeated the line that Brazil doesn’t classify CV and PCC as terrorist organizations.

Give me a break.

If another country offers tools to squeeze the financial arteries of gangs that terrorize your own population, the adult response is to coordinate, share intel, and go after their money like your life depends on it. Because for millions of Brazilians, it kind of does. Instead, Lula’s people hid behind sovereignty theater and acted like the real danger was the label, not the criminals. Another diplomatic bullshit…

And no, before some genius tries it, this doesn’t turn Flávio Bolsonaro and the rest of that rotten clan into heroes. Reports say they lobbied Trump for the designation and immediately tried to sell it as a political win. Of course they did. The Bolsonaros are opportunists with a family business model built on outrage and impunity.

But their shamelessness doesn’t erase Lula’s failure. It makes it worse. Even those parasites understand how to use international pressure when it benefits them. Lula had a chance to use it for the public good and chose to act offended instead.

CV and PCC are not just “criminal organizations”. They run territories. They intimidate communities, corrupt police, buy politicians, and impose their own rules with rifles. Call them whatever you want on paper, but in practice they operate like domestic enemies. If you’re a resident stuck in the middle, the difference between “gang” and “terrorist” is academic. The fear is the same. The coercion is the same. The state’s absence is the same.

That’s why the U.S. designation matters. It might opens doors to broader sanctions. That’s leverage Brazil should be demanding, not rejecting.