PCC and CV terrorists: The impact on the Brazil-USA relationship

The designation of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) and the CV (Comando Vermelho) as terrorist entities by the United States generated heated reactions from the Brazilian government. CNN International analyst Lourival Sant'Anna comments on the topic.

During an event in Sergipe, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) adopted an impassioned speech in response to the American announcement, which, according to Lourival, may not be the most effective strategy to deal with the consequences of the measure.

Lourival assessed that Lula's instinct to adopt a more combative speech in front of his electorate is understandable.

"I understand President Lula's instinct, when speaking to his electorate, today, for example, Sergipe, to bring a more inflammatory speech, as if he had been betrayed behind his back by the American president, Donald Trump", said the analyst.

According to him, Lula had handed over a dossier and held a three-hour meeting with the American side, only to see the State Department give in to the arguments of an opposition leader shortly afterwards.

For Sant'Anna, the inflammatory tone adopted by the Brazilian government does not help to mitigate or circumvent the pressures that may arise from the new measure.

The analyst highlighted that the designation creates pressure tools that the American government can use in all future negotiations.

"No matter how far they are from organized crime, they end up being reflected in the power that the American government now has to claim that it is dealing with a State that harbors terrorist groups that, therefore, threaten the national security of the United States", he explained.

The technical approach as an alternative
Sant'Anna argued that the most effective line of argument would be technical and sober.

According to him, Brazil should argue that the terrorist designation, in the specific case of the country, will not produce good results in the fight against organized crime.

"Organized crime will prosper in the face of this designation, because it will remove, it will close the communication vessels between the police, between public ministries, between the apparatuses that are effective in combating organized crime", he stated.

The analyst highlighted that the classification as terrorism brings confidentiality to the information on the American side, which harms cooperation.

The analyst also pointed out a contradiction in the American measure.

While domestic terrorism in the US is handled by the FBI, the designation of the PCC and CV as terrorists would transfer responsibility to the CIA and the Armed Forces abroad, cutting off communication channels with the state police, the Brazilian Federal Police and the Public Ministry.

Sant'Anna even questioned the premise of the American decision: "Who, knowing the real world, would say that the PCC and the Red Command threaten the national security of the United States? That's a childish thing, I mean, that's not true."

For him, the measure would be a political pretext to create a new form of pressure, after the Trump administration had failed to make the Lula government and the STF back down on their demands the previous year.

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Source: CNN