Rio de Janeiro: Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday slammed Washington for designating the country’s two biggest crime factions as terrorist groups, warning the US against “playing games with our democracy.”
“We will not accept being treated like children. We will not accept being treated as if we were some tinpot republic,” a furious Lula said at an event in the northeast of the country.
The United States on Thursday designated Brazil’s two main organized crime groups, the Red Command (CV) and First Capital Command (PCC), as terrorist organizations.
Both groups emerged in Brazil’s prisons and have expanded across the country and wield control of large areas — such as Rio de Janeiro’s favelas — with involvement in drug and arms trafficking and extortion.
“They are terrorists because they torment families, they torment neighborhoods, and they torment the city,” said Lula, adding that “we will fight them right here at home.”
“They are not the kind of terrorists that Trump is looking for. Trump wants an Osama Bin Laden figure.”
Brasilia has long opposed the terrorist label, and the designation was seen as a clear snub to Lula, who had a lengthy meeting with US President Donald Trump earlier this month which both men hailed as positive.
“I spent three hours with President Trump --three whole hours,” Lula raged, adding he had handed the president documents which specifically discussed the fight against organized crime.
“Do not play games with the sovereignty of this country. Do not play games with our democracy.”
The United States and Brazil signed an agreement in April to combat arms and drug trafficking.
“If you want to fight organized crime, hand over our criminals who are in the United States,” Lula said, highlighting that weapons from the US were being “smuggled into Brazil”.
He made reference to fugitive ex-spy chief Alexandre Ramagem, who fled to the US after being sentenced to 16 years in prison for assisting jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro in plotting a coup.
Trump has long been seen as an ally of the far-right Bolsonaro family.
The terrorist designation came two days after Trump met with the former president’s sons, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro -- who is running for president in October elections -- and Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is living in the United States and has long lobbied for the move.
Lula slammed Flavio for “the utter shamelessness to betray our homeland by traveling to the United States to beg for American intervention in Brazil.”
