The Brazilian government has announced a new security partnership with the United States to combat illegal drug and arms trafficking as well as criminal networks.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a social media post on Friday that the agreement was a breakthrough.
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“Brazil and the United States today established an unprecedented cooperation between the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service and the United States Customs Service,” he wrote on social media.
“We will strengthen the fight against international arms and drug trafficking through concrete actions.”
He said the “concrete actions” include “real-time data sharing, rigorous cargo tracking and joint operations to stop illicit shipments.”
Separately, a statement from Brazil’s Revenue Agency said the agreement would create a “continuous flow of information from U.S. authorities to Brazilian authorities.”
According to Lula’s government, the operation is called the DESARMA program.
Brazil’s Finance Minister Dario Durrigan praised the cooperation with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as an “important step in strengthening international cooperation” against crime.
“This initiative will integrate intelligence and joint operations to disrupt arms and drug trafficking, thereby strengthening security and coordinated action between the two countries,” he said on social media.
Friday’s agreement is the latest cooperation between U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and Latin American governments.
President Trump is waging a campaign to crack down on criminal networks across the Western Hemisphere, encouraging right-wing governments in the region to join the “American Shield” coalition.
However, left-wing leaders like Lula were absent from the March summit commemorating the launch of the Shield of the Americas.
Still, the Trump administration has been pressuring governments like Lula’s to take more “aggressive” action against crime, including deploying the military.
Mr. Lula has sought to limit the illegal flow of U.S.-made weapons across the border.
In announcing the DESARMA initiative, the Brazilian government revealed that in the past 12 months alone, it had seized 1,168 illegally imported weapons and weapon parts, mainly from the US state of Florida.
According to the government, most of these weapons end up in the hands of criminal networks.
different approach
But Mr. Trump and Mr. Lula have been at odds in recent months over the best way to deal with crime in the Americas.
Since returning to office in January 2025, President Trump has taken a hard-line approach, labeling several Latin American gangs and cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations,” a designation traditionally reserved for politically motivated armed groups such as al-Qaeda.
He has used such labels as a justification to carry out deadly attacks in the name of national security.
Since September 2, the United States has carried out at least 47 deadly attacks on ships sailing in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, in what legal experts have condemned as extrajudicial killings.
At least 147 people were killed, but their identities have not been made public.
The Trump administration also carried out what it called a “joint military and law enforcement raid” in Venezuela on January 3 in the name of combating drug trafficking.
The operation left dozens of people dead, including Cubans or Venezuelans, and also abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. They are currently awaiting trial in New York on drug trafficking and weapons possession charges.
The Trump administration reportedly claimed to be in an “armed conflict” with criminal networks in Latin America and considers them “illegal combatants.”
Lula’s administration has taken action against these networks in Brazil, while urging the Trump administration to refrain from labeling organizations within its borders as “foreign terrorists.”
For example, in recent months there have been reports that President Trump is considering designating two Brazilian criminal networks, Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV).
However, in a March 25 interview with Brazilian news outlet G1, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said he had conveyed his opposition directly to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“I spoke to Secretary Marco Rubio on the phone and told him that the Brazilian government opposes this classification,” Vieira said.
Lula himself has repeatedly called on the Trump administration to respect the sovereignty of Latin American countries, including his own.
“Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept guidance in any way,” Lula wrote last year after President Trump threatened to impose hefty tariffs on the country in protest of the prosecution of former right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula is scheduled to travel to Washington, D.C., in the coming months to visit President Trump.
