The US government announced on Thursday (May 28), in a statement from the State Department, that it will designate the Brazilian criminal factions Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).

According to the statement, the decision will take effect on June 5, and the measures are adopted under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and an executive order issued by President Donald Trump. The FTO designations take effect upon publication in the Federal Register.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized in the statement that CV and PCC are two of the most violent criminal organizations in Brazil.

“Together, they command thousands of members and have orchestrated brutal attacks against Brazilian police officers, public authorities, and civilians. Their influence and illicit networks extend far beyond Brazil’s borders, reaching our entire region and also our country,” said Rubio.

The Brazilian government had been trying in recent months to avoid this designation, believing it could pave the way for US military action in Brazil or the imposition of severe sanctions on economic and financial sectors.

Risk

According to experts, this designation represents a potential risk to Brazilian sovereignty and could even harm investigative cooperation efforts between the two countries, as it could alter the level of confidentiality of information shared between their security agencies, centralizing it in the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or military bodies.

According to these experts, this change could hinder ongoing joint investigations and make future cooperation impossible.

“Narcoterrorism”

In this new context, the Donald Trump administration has been reorienting Washington’s foreign policy toward Latin America, directing its war machine to the region under the justification of combating what it calls “narcoterrorism.”

Over the past few months, US military forces have directly bombed several vessels in the Caribbean, outside of US jurisdiction, under the pretext of combating terrorism.

The invasion of Venezuelan territory earlier this year, which resulted in the removal and capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, was also justified on the basis of combating narcoterrorism.

The scope of similar actions on Brazilian territory under this new designation, while uncertain, becomes a real risk.

Earlier this month, during a visit to the US, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva discussed with Donald Trump at the White House the adoption of joint efforts between the two governments to financially suffocate transnational criminal organizations operating in Brazil and the US. According to Lula, they did not specifically address criminal factions operating in Brazil, such as CV and PCC.

Rubio’s announcement also coincides with a meeting between him and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a pre-candidate for Brazil’s presidency, which took place on Tuesday (May 26) in Washington. A day earlier, the senator had met with Trump at the White House, accompanied by his brother, the self-exiled former federal representative Eduardo Bolsonaro, both sons of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazil and Suriname will begin negotiations in the second half of the year to expand their trade agreement and stimulate new business opportunities.

This rapprochement was one of the main focuses of the bilateral meeting between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Surinamese President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, which took place on Thursday (May 28) in Brasília. Elected last year and serving a term until 2030, she is the first woman to lead the neighboring country.

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“Our trade is still very small and concentrated in a few products. In 2025, it was only 55 million dollars - that is, almost nothing. The only trade agreement we have is extremely limited. With this visit, we managed to approve terms of reference to increase trade flows between Brazil and Suriname,” Lula stated in a joint press statement at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Bilateral trade includes machinery, electrical equipment, chemical industry products, and commodities, and is composed almost entirely of Brazilian exports. According to Lula, the negotiations should expand trade facilitation measures and include new sectors.

The Surinamese delegation’s program in Brasília includes a business meeting bringing together Brazilian entities and companies and representatives of Suriname’s productive sector in the areas of energy, logistics, transport, agriculture, and communications.

Critical oil and minerals

In recent years, Suriname has discovered significant offshore oil reserves in the region known as the Guiana Basin in the Atlantic Ocean, which are expected to boost the country’s economy in the coming years.

In 2024, Petrobras and the Surinamese state-owned company Staatsolie signed agreements on cooperation in oil, renewable energy, and safety in hydrocarbon exploration activities. Lula also recalled that, like Brazil, Suriname stands out for its potential in critical minerals, which are essential for the manufacture of electronic components for high-tech equipment.

“We have the opportunity to cooperate in sustainable mining, local industrialization, and value-added production, contributing to overcoming historical models based solely on the export of raw materials,” said the Brazilian president.

Food security

Another important area of bilateral cooperation is agriculture and food production. “Brazil can contribute significantly to the food and nutritional security of the Surinamese people through the supply of beef, pork, poultry, and other food products,” Lula emphasized.

Technical and scientific cooperation between the two countries was also the focus of agreements and memoranda of understanding signed during the meeting.

Jennifer Geerlings-Simons’ agenda in Brasília will also include a visit this week to a unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) for an exchange on expertise in family farming, food security, and sustainable agroforestry systems.

“For Suriname, lowering food costs and ensuring food security remain critical, and we are certain that Brazil is a partner we can trust to help us with this,” stated Geerlings-Simons.

Social programs

The President of Suriname will also visit a unit of the Social Assistance Reference Center (CRAS), the entry point to Brazilian government social programs, and a housing project under the Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life) program, which could serve as inspiration for a model that Geerlings-Simons intends to take to the neighboring country.

“I think we agreed that the main task of every politician is to ensure that people can achieve the highest level of well-being. Furthermore, we discussed regional development issues and reaffirmed our shared commitment to democracy and regional integration,” added the Surinamese leader.

Signed agreements

In total, Lula and Jennifer Geerlings-Simons signed 13 cooperation agreements in sectors such as cybersecurity, police cooperation, combating human trafficking, public health, integrated fire management, hydroelectric dam security, and coordinated military operations in the Amazon border region.

The governments of Brazil and Suriname also discussed measures to expand maritime and air connections between the two countries and advance the so-called “Guiana Ring,” an integration project connecting northern Brazil to Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, facilitating access to the Caribbean market and strengthening regional infrastructure.