Ciro Gomes, a former Brazilian minister and pre-candidate for governor of Ceará, said the United States is not preparing to invade Brazil after classifying the country’s two largest criminal factions as terrorist organizations, but will instead use the designation to pursue their money.
“They are going to invade Brazil? No, they are not. They are going to block the accounts,” Ciro said on Sunday, May 31, during the Mass of Saint Anthony in Barbalha, Ceará, according to Poder360.
The U.S. measure, which applies to the Primeiro Comando da Capital, known as PCC, and Comando Vermelho, or CV, is due to take effect on Friday, June 5. The two groups are Brazil’s most powerful criminal factions, with roots in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro prison systems and operations that now reach drug trafficking, territorial control, extortion, money laundering and informal influence in parts of the economy.
Ciro, who recently joined the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, or PSDB, argued that the practical effect of the American decision will be financial: freezing bank accounts, tracing assets and expanding sanctions against people and companies linked to the factions. “Nobody carries billions of dollars in crates, sacks or suitcases,” he said. “It is through the financial system, and that is what they are terrified of.”
His remarks place him between two currents in Brazil’s political debate. Allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have criticized the U.S. move as a risk to national sovereignty and a mismatch with Brazilian law, which treats the factions as organized crime groups rather than terrorist organizations because their motives are considered economic and territorial, not ideological. Opposition figures have defended the designation as a way to strengthen pressure on criminal networks.
Ciro blamed what he called “20 years of omission” by Brazilian governments for allowing the factions to grow more complex and penetrate legal markets, the financial system and, in his view, politics — especially in Ceará. He said that failure left Brazil vulnerable to a foreign power redefining the institutional framework for confronting the problem.
The U.S. designation may allow Washington to block assets, restrict access to the American banking system, apply international sanctions and punish individuals or companies that maintain business relations with members of the factions. Poder360 reported that the Trump administration could rely on tools such as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, and the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, or Kingpin Act, both used against complex criminal and drug-trafficking networks.
The issue has also raised concern among Brazilian prosecutors and diplomats. Lincoln Gakiya, a São Paulo state prosecutor who has investigated the PCC for two decades, told BBC News Brasil that treating the groups as terrorist organizations could shift U.S. handling of the matter from law-enforcement agencies such as the FBI and DEA toward intelligence agencies, potentially making routine cooperation with Brazilian authorities more difficult. He also warned that financial sanctions could affect institutions connected to the U.S. banking system.
Gakiya said he was not asserting that such consequences would occur, but warned that the designation could create room for secret U.S. actions abroad without the consent of the foreign state involved. Analysts cited by BBC News Brasil considered a military intervention in Brazil unlikely, while saying the classification could still create pressure on the factions and on the Brazilian government.
Lula has rejected the U.S. framing, saying Brazil will not accept being treated as a “banana republic” and arguing that while the PCC and CV terrorize Brazilian communities, they do not fit the type of terrorism invoked by Trump.
The dispute now turns on whether the U.S. designation becomes primarily a tool against illicit finance — as Ciro predicts — or a source of broader diplomatic friction over who defines Brazil’s fight against organized crime.