Brazilian media says the FTO designations of two homegrown criminal networks are imminent

The US Department of State has prepared the required documentation for the FTO designations of the Primeiro Comando Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV), and the designations have been approved by other agencies using the same protocols as other recent Latin American cases, according to UOL. The outlet reported that only the submission of supporting materials to the US Congress and final publication in the Federal Register remain. 

While on March 10 the State Department reportedly told Brazilian newspaper O Globo that the US “considers that Brazilian criminal organizations, including the PCC and the CV, represent significant threats to regional security due to their involvement with drug trafficking, violence, and transnational crime,” it did not confirm the expected designations. It reportedly stated, “We do not anticipate potential terrorist designations or deliberations on such classifications. We are fully committed to adopting appropriate measures against foreign groups involved in terrorist activity.”

Following these reports, according to O Globo and G1, Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to prevent the Brazilian FTO designations. But São Paulo prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya, who has investigated the PCC for 20 years, believes Brazilian objections will fall on deaf ears. Gakiya told GloboNews on March 11 that he had been sharing PCC operational details with Rubio’s advisors who had visited Brasília and São Paulo to research PCC’s criminal activity.

According to Brazilian media outlet Jovem Pan, State Department representatives who made the information-gathering trip to Brazil included Darren Beattie, a senior official in public diplomacy; Ricardo Pita of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; and Foreign Service officer Joshua Johnson.

Given the current turbulence in the relationship between the US and Brazil, its efforts to avoid the designations face an uphill battle. President Lula’s planned March visit to Washington to discuss cartel issues, among other topics, with President Trump remains unscheduled and will likely not occur this month, according to the news outlet Poder360. On March 13, Brazil suspended the travel visa of State Department official Darren Beattie, according to Poder360. While Brazil reportedly pulled the visa in response to Magnitsky Act sanctions on its health minister, Alexandre Padilha, Brazilian media reported that it was likely in reaction to Beattie’s reported plan to visit Lula’s political rival, Jair Bolsonaro, in prison. But perhaps this is just not top of mind for the US, which is newly focused on Iran.

The activities and risks associated with FTOs operating in Latin America can be tracked using The Risk Advisory Group’s FTO-Cartel Risk Tracker.