São Paulo’s State Secretary of Public Security, Guilherme Derrite, moved to shut down speculation that Washington’s terrorism designation of Brazil’s two largest criminal organizations could open the door to U.S. military operations on Brazilian soil.
“Legally speaking, based on international treaties, the United States will not carry out military operations here in our country,” Derrite said, addressing the matter directly.
The Designation Behind the Comment
The U.S. State Department designated the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV) as Specially Designated Global Terrorists on May 28, with Foreign Terrorist Organization status taking effect June 5.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the move days after President Trump met with former President Jair Bolsonaro at the White House; a Bolsonaro-aligned senator told reporters afterward that he had actively lobbied Trump for the designation.
PCC and CV became the first Brazilian organizations added to a growing U.S. terrorism list that already includes 15 other criminal groups across Mexico, Ecuador, Haiti, Colombia, Venezuela, and Central America.
The State Department’s announcement described the two groups, which together command an estimated tens of thousands of members, as responsible for brutal attacks on Brazilian police, officials, and civilians, and said their networks extend “across our region and into our country,” citing money laundering through U.S. banks and cross-border arms trafficking as the primary links to American territory.
Why the Question Matters
The designation arrived amid a broader pattern this year of Washington pairing terrorism labels for Latin American criminal groups with direct military action — including the January capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and an ongoing campaign of lethal strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean.
That pattern is what prompted questions over whether Brazil could eventually see similar U.S. military involvement against PCC or CV, given both groups now carry the same formal designation used to justify those earlier actions.
Derrite’s Position
Derrite’s comments reject that possibility, grounding his position in Brazil’s existing international treaty obligations rather than in any specific new agreement or negotiation with Washington. His remarks position Brazilian state authorities as continuing to treat PCC and CV as a domestic law enforcement matter, distinct from the more direct U.S. military posture applied elsewhere in the hemisphere, even as the terrorism designation itself formally aligns the two groups with the same legal category used to justify those other operations.
What Comes Next
Neither the Brazilian federal government nor the U.S. State Department has indicated any change to the current division of responsibility, under which Brazilian state and federal security forces retain sole operational authority against PCC and CV inside the country.
Whether that arrangement holds as Washington’s broader regional anti-cartel campaign continues to expand is likely to remain a live question, particularly given how quickly required U.S. military action elsewhere.
🚨🇧🇷🇺🇸 | AHORA/BRASIL: São Paulo’s State Secretary of Public Security — Brazil’s most consequential state-level security official, and the PCC’s home base and Brazil’s largest state — says an FTO label WILL NOT open the door to U.S. military action inside Brazil, similar to how… pic.twitter.com/6dU7OWne60
— Sociedad Media (@sociedadmedia) July 29, 2026
