President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is launching, this Tuesday (May 12), the “Brazil Against Organized Crime” program and announcing measures focused on public safety. The package provides for an investment of BRL 11 billion, with BRL 1 billion coming from the federal budget and BRL 10 billion through loans from the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) to the states.

“Brazil Against Organized Crime was developed in consultation with the country’s states, experts, and public security forces, and aims to dismantle the economic, operational, and social foundations of criminal organizations across the country,” says a statement from the Brazilian government.

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The program will be structured around four strategic pillars:

• financially strangling criminal organizations;
• strengthening security in the prison system;
• improving the investigation and resolution of homicides;
• combating arms trafficking.

At a press conference last week, Lula emphasized the need to “destroy the financial power of organized crime and criminal gangs.” Following his meeting with US President Donald Trump on May 7, Lula stated that Brazil is willing to collaborate with other countries in this regard.

“We are going to tackle this on several fronts [with the Brazil Against Organized Crime program], one of which is the financial aspect. We need to destroy the financial power of organized crime and criminal factions. In some cases, they have become multinational corporations. They are present in various countries, in soccer, in politics, in the business world - they are everywhere, even in the judiciary,” said Lula.

The program is expected to be formalized through a presidential decree, with Brazilian states required to join in order to access BNDES funds.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Tuesday (May 5) that the detention of Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila in Israel is unjustifiable.

On April 30, he was arrested aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was bound for the Gaza Strip and intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters near Greece.

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In addition to Thiago Ávila, Spanish activist Saif Abu Keshek was also detained and taken to Israel, while more than 100 other pro-Palestinian activists on some 20 boats were taken to the Greek island of Crete.

Lula said keeping Thiago Ávila in detention is an unjustifiable action by the Israeli government that causes great concern and must be condemned by all.

“The detention of the flotilla activists in international waters already constitutes a serious affront to international law,” Lula wrote in a social media post.

“For this reason, our government, together with that of Spain, which also had a citizen detained, demands that they be given full guarantees of safety and be immediately released,” the president added.

The pretrial detention of Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek, previously set to run until Tuesday (May 5), has now been extended to Sunday (10).

The activists were part of a second Global Sumud Flotilla, launched in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip by delivering humanitarian aid. The ships set sail from Barcelona on April 12.

The first flotilla was boarded in October last year, when more than 450 participants - including Greta Thunberg - were detained by the Israeli military.

Detentions

According to Global Sumud, 180 members have been detained, including the Brazilian and the Palestinian-Spanish activist, the only two still in Israeli custody. A total of 35 were injured in detention.

Soraya Misleh, a leader of the Palestine–São Paulo Front, highlighted the flotilla’s motto: “When governments fail, we sail.”

“The flotilla’s goal is to provide humanitarian aid in the face of a criminal siege that imposes hunger and, increasingly, thirst, along with a total lack of living conditions on the Palestinian population in Gaza, subjected to genocide and widespread destruction. Hospitals, schools - everything has been destroyed,” declared Soraya Misleh.

*Letycia Treitero Kawada contributed to this report.