What changes with factions seen as terrorists by the USA

When this debate seemed to be pacified in Brazil, with the opposition abandoning the idea hard fought by the Lula (PT) government, the United States government took up the issue again: in recent days signs have increased again that the North American country intends to declare criminal factions as terrorist organizations. Red Command (CV) e First Capital Command (PCC).

If the proposal moves forward in the USA, there is a risk of opening a kind of “Pandora’s box” of international sanctions on people and companies, financial loss, threat to sovereignty and even the eventuality of specific military attacks. But the external definition also would open up opportunities for broader cooperation in combating the problem.

“The United States views Brazilian criminal organizations, including the PCC and CV, as significant threats to regional security due to their involvement in drug trafficking, violence and transnational crime,” states in a statement released on Tuesday (10) the United States Department of State. “We do not anticipate possible terrorist designations or deliberations on this type of classification. We are fully committed to taking appropriate measures against foreign groups involved in terrorist activity,” it adds.

The demonstration occurs amid behind-the-scenes information published in the Brazilian press about the North American government’s move to make the new classification official in the coming weeks. The inclusion of the PCC and Red Command factions in the list of terrorist organizations targeted by the US allows the US government to adopt legal, financial and operational measures specific against the included groups.

The measures that the US can take to classify factions as terrorist groups

The possibilities for classifying Brazilian criminal factions as terrorist groups in the USA include the authorization to block financial assets and the prohibition of transactions and immigration restrictions against members or associates.

It also makes any form of material support to groups a crime in the United States, including money, training, services or provision of equipment, in addition to expanding the use of intelligence instruments and the operational capabilities of the United States Department of Defense, including unilateral actions, depending on the way the legislation is applied — which under the Donald Trump administration has proven to be quite broad.

Since last year, the US Armed Forces have attacked several vessels and killed dozens of people in military operations against criminal organizations in the region. During the Trump administration, other Latin American criminal groups were included on the official US list of terrorist organizations, such as the Jalisco posterfrom Mexico, and the Aragua Trainand Venezuela.

Lula and Trump should talk about the topic

According to São Paulo Public Prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya, the United States should not take into account the opinion of the Brazilian government in the discussion about classifying the country’s factions as terrorist organizations.

“They told me that they were in Brazil to learn about the functioning of the PCC, to find out about its international activities, and that they would not take into account, at least that was what they told me, the opinion of the Brazilian government on whether or not the United States classifies the PCC as a terrorist organization because it is an internal act, and not that it concerns Brazil,” he said in an interview with GloboNews on Wednesday (11).

Even so, there is the prospect that the issue will be discussed between Lula and Trump on the Brazilian president’s upcoming trip to the USA later this semester — initially the meeting at the White House would have been in March, but it was canceled due to the start of the US and Israel’s war against Iran.

In the opinion of experts interviewed by the People’s Gazettethe situation brings both risks and opportunities. The prosecutor of the Public Ministry of São Paulo (MP-SP) Celeste Leite dos Santos emphasizes that for Brazil there would be no automatic change in the legal classification of these factions, nor direct imposition of criminal or military obligations. The Brazilian legal system would continue to be governed by its own laws, which, today, treat these organizations as criminal entities, not as terrorist groups.

The situation can strengthen public security policies, combating money laundering and protecting victims, as long as the debate is conducted without simplistic solutions.

Celeste Leite dos Santos, MP-SP prosecutor

The prosecutor does not believe in the possibility of specific military attacks on Brazilian territory or in violation of national sovereignty, actions that would violate international law. “The biggest risk is not military, in my opinion, but rather diplomatic and financial, if a international narrative that the Brazilian State is incapable of containing criminal organizations”, he states.

“The most concrete consequence would be the intensification of international financial controls, especially by correspondent banks, payment platforms, investment funds and organizations that follow strict standards of compliance and combating the financing of terrorism”, she analyzes.

Still according to the MP-SP prosecutor, the reputational risk cannot be ignored. “Foreign investors evaluate institutional stability, regulatory predictability and state capacity to combat organized crime”, he says.

“If the international narrative is poorly conducted, there may be a perception, even if inaccurate, of institutional fragility. On the other hand, Brazil has a robust legal framework, active institutions and active international cooperation, factors that tend to mitigate this risk when correctly communicated”, says Celeste.

International cooperation in combating organized crime has the potential to gain strength

For the MP-SP prosecutor, on the other hand, the measure tends to reinforce international cooperation in matters of financial intelligence, asset blocking, extraditions and information exchange. You can also expand the access to international mechanisms for tracking illicit flowswhich are currently more easily triggered in contexts of terrorism.

“In addition, the situation can serve as a political and institutional impetus for strengthening public security policies, combating money laundering and protecting victims, as long as the debate is conducted responsibly and without simplistic solutions or criminal spectacularization”, states the MP-SP prosecutor.

The eventual decision by the United States to classify the PCC and CV as terrorist organizations produces legal effects, mainly within North American jurisdiction, with emphasis on the financial and investigative field, expanding mechanisms for blocking assets, tracking financial flows and international cooperation, as pointed out by lawyer Fernando Capano, PhD from the University of São Paulo (USP) specialized in Military Law and Public Security.

“This, however, does not imply any automatic sanction against Brazil, nor does it represent hostility to the Brazilian Stateas the target of the measure are specific criminal organizations. From an economic point of view, I think it is unlikely that such a classification, in itself, will cause a significant flight of investments. Such a measure can generate, at most, greater rigor in the mechanisms of compliance of the international financial system”, evaluates Capano.

He agrees that the initiative can have a potentially positive effect by expanding international cooperation in confronting criminal organizations that already operate in transnational trafficking, money laundering and smuggling networks.

“Factions such as the PCC and CV have long ceased to be exclusively domestic phenomena, becoming part of global organized crime chains. In this context, the strengthening of financial intelligence and international investigative cooperation can contribute to achieving what, as a rule, sustains these structures, which is their economic capacity”, he states.

Regardless of the treatment given to the issue by the US government, the Brazilian government should not change the national legal system in relation to this. The Ministry of Justice’s central argument is that terrorism, as defined in international treaties and the 2016 Brazilian law, requires ideological, political, religious or xenophobic motivation. Brazilian factions, on the other hand, operate under the logic of profit and commercial territorial dominance — they are “criminal companies”.