Brazil's government said on Thursday that it rejects any suggestion of failures or omissions in the fight against transnational organized crime. In a formal statement, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security answered US President Donald Trump, who accused Brazil of having failed to confront the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho (CV), which the US State Department describes as among Brazil's most violent criminal organizations and has designated as terrorist groups.
The criticism appears in an annual report the White House sent to the US Congress on Tuesday and the State Department released on Wednesday, according to G1. It is a presidential determination for fiscal year 2027, issued under the Foreign Emergencies Act of 1961, which identifies the world's major drug producing and transit countries. In the document, Trump says that while other governments in the Western Hemisphere are taking "courageous measures" against cartels, Brazil "failed" to confront the two gangs. According to Poder360, the document also says the PCC and the CV have turned the country into a hub of the global cocaine flow.
"These Brazilian terrorist organizations are a growing threat to peace and security around the world, and the government of Brazil must urgently take firm measures to confront and defeat them before they spread and grow," the document says.
Brasilia's answer
The core of Brazil's reply is legal. Brazil is not among the 23 countries the United States formally identified as major drug producers or transit routes, the government said. The criticism appeared "laterally", in the narrative section of the document, "without support in its operative section", and does not match the legal category of formal non-compliance defined in US law for this annual mechanism. In practical terms, Brasilia argues that Washington issued no formal finding against the country.
The statement says the US assessment ignores the Anti-Gang Law (Lei Antifacção), signed in March 2026, which brings harsher penalties for gang leaders, as well as the Brazil Against Organized Crime Program launched in May and the "tens of thousands" of anti-crime operations carried out by federal forces. It also notes that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva personally delivered a proposal in Washington on May 7 covering joint measures on money laundering, intelligence sharing and arms trafficking, and that Brazil is still waiting for a US response.
Justice Minister Wellington Lima e Silva told CNN Brasil that Wednesday's Força Integrada operation, run jointly with 19 states, shows the Brazilian state is acting. According to the minister, the operation served more than 170 search and seizure warrants, made 137 arrests and 44 in-flagrante detentions, and froze more than 508 million reais in assets and property.
"The operation completely contradicts the idea that the Brazilian state is not fighting organized crime efficiently. Today alone, more than half a billion reais were frozen, with 19 states of the Federation taking part with their entire police apparatus," the minister said.
The public exchange comes months after the State Department designated the PCC and the CV as terrorist organizations. Lula's government criticized the move at the time, arguing that it could open the door to US intervention on Brazilian soil. It cited as precedent the US military operation in Venezuela in January, when President Nicolás Maduro was arrested on charges of running a drug cartel. In the statement, the ministry reaffirms that fighting organized crime is a priority of the federal government and that Brazil will keep acting "sovereignly and in a coordinated way".