U.S. may label Brazilian gangs as terror groups, after push by the Bolsonaros

The Trump administration is weighing designating Brazil’s two biggest drug gangs as terrorist groups after lobbying by two sons of jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of President Donald Trump, according to U.S. and Brazilian officials.

Security has become a major concern for Brazilian voters, and a designation could put a bigger spotlight on the issue and help one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Flávio Bolsonaro.

He is challenging President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, a leftist, in national elections this October and has accused Lula of being soft on crime.

The proposal, discussed in recent weeks within the State Department, has raised concerns among Brazilian officials that the United States may try to puts its thumb on the electoral scale to help another Bolsonaro.

Last year Trump used tariffs and sanctions to try to keep Jair Bolsonaro out of prison on charges of overseeing a coup after losing the last election in 2022, to Lula. Bolsonaro was ultimately convicted and sentenced to prison.

The Trump administration has labeled more than a dozen Latin American gangs terrorist organizations as part of a campaign to target criminal groups that U.S. officials say threaten the United States, including major Mexican drug cartels. The designations mean the U.S. government can impose financial restrictions on the groups and their associates.

Yet the Brazilian gangs, the First Capital Command and the Red Command, do not play a major role in trafficking drugs to the United States. They mostly send cocaine to Europe and other parts of the world.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a push this month. On March 8, a day after Trump hosted a summit of conservative Latin American leaders to talk about crime and drugs, Rubio told Brazil’s foreign minister that the Trump administration planned to make the designation, according to officials with knowledge of the conversation.

Rubio also asked the foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, to label the gangs as terrorist groups, but Vieira said his government would not do so, the officials said.

The State Department has not finalized the designations, and any internal decision could still be reversed.

The groups pose “significant threats to regional security due to their involvement in drug trafficking, violence and transnational crime,” the State Department said in a statement.

Lula’s office also declined to comment on the U.S. designations.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.