One thing I've been asking myself a lot lately is why the left loves criminals so much, but this latest move from House Democrats really has me scratching my head.
Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV) are the two largest and most influential criminal organizations in Brazil, though they operate internationally. Both were born in prisons as self-protection groups in the 1990s, and today, they are some of the biggest drug and arms trafficking organizations in the world. There are tens of thousands of members, and they terrorize Brazilian civilians and have taken over entire towns. From beheadings to bombings and other mass attacks, they use terrorist-style tactics to control territory and instill fear.
I'm just scratching the surface here, but trust me when I say these are some very bad hombres.
There has been talk that Marco Rubio wants to designate them as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). This is a tool the Donald Trump administration has used quite successfully since taking office, especially in the Western Hemisphere. For example, in 2025, the State Department designated Nicolás Maduro's Cartel de los Soles as part of the pressure campaign leading up to his capture and arrest. It has also used it on numerous Latin American cartels and gangs, like MS-13, Tren de Aragua, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel. Many other like-minded countries in the region have followed the United States' lead.
Designating a group as an FTO allows the U.S. to curtail support for terrorist activities and pressure groups to "get out of the terrorism business." It does this by preventing anyone in the U.S. from providing resources or support for that group, among other things, which curbs financing, isolates these criminal organizations internationally, and heightens public awareness.
So it only makes sense to designate PCC and CV, right? Well, that's only if you're a person with common sense, and I've found that most House Dems don't have much of that. Last week, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), penned a letter to Rubio asking him not to designate these two criminal organizations because "such a move would be counterproductive and harmful to U.S.-Brazil relations." A handful of other House Dems signed it.
The letter admits that these two groups "pose a serious threat to regional security, democratic governance, the environment, and human rights," but it also says that the Dems are "concerned the Trump Administration’s overuse and weaponization of Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designations without meeting the clear statutory threshold for terrorist activity."
It suggests that instead of designating these groups as FTOs, the U.S. should counter them through "border enforcement, financial investigations, and enhanced cooperation with international partners, including the United States and INTERPOL."
A lot of good that's done us in the past. As a matter of fact, it was the lack of pressure from previous Democrat presidents that allowed groups like these to metastasize.
It also not so subtly points out that it fears that the designations could interfere with the October 2026 Brazilian presidential elections. In other words, it sounds like they're concerned that their little socialist dictator pal, the very anti-Trump Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is falling in the polls, may not win his fourth term.
I wonder what they'd think if the Joe Biden administration designated these groups as FTOs? Or Barack Obama? What would they be saying if Brazil had a conservative president who was up for re-election? I'm sure you can answer those questions yourselves. This is all just partisan garbage and yet another way to try to make Trump look bad...and they're willing to do it at the risk of the lives of thousands of people in the United States, Brazil, and the rest of the region.
Trump and Rubio are actually finally doing something about it. They understand that these transnational criminal organizations are the number one threat to our region, whether it's trafficking (drugs, people, or weapons — take your pick), fueling the fentanyl crisis, driving mass migration, or leading to the corruption of various government officials.
With any luck, Rubio will ignore these clowns and make the FTO designations. This is just proof that Democrats would rather prop up their socialist allies, like Lula, than stop narco-terror and protect Americans.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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