Lewandowski: we have the position that one thing is terrorism and another is a criminal faction

The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, stated this Wednesday, 29, that the federal government understands that there is a dissociation between terrorist groups and criminal organizations. The minister’s statement was made at a press conference after an emergency meeting with the governor of Rio, Cláudio Castro (PL).

“We have a position that has already been expressed several times: one thing is terrorism, another thing is criminal factions. Terrorism always involves an ideological note, it is always a political action with social repercussions, with sporadic attacks, always taking into account a certain ideological factor”, said Lewandowski.

Lewandowski also said that equating criminal factions with terrorist groups could make it difficult to combat the organizations. According to him, Brazilian legislation already makes clear the identification of the two types of offenders.

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According to Lewandowski, it is necessary to decapitalize organized crime, but the Federal Police and Federal Highway Police have very restricted competence

“Criminal factions are made up of groups of people who systematically commit crimes that are capitulated in the country’s positive legislation. We have laws that establish what is a criminal organization and what is terrorism. These are two types of activity that cannot be confused, and we have no intention of mixing this up because it would make combating these types of clearly distinct criminals very difficult,” said Lewandowski.

According to Lewandowski, the police operation that left at least 119 dead in Rio did not concern the Federal Police as it is a judicial police and not one for “occupying territories”. The minister also said that the federal government has no assessment of the action because, according to him, it was the “entire responsibility” of the government of the State of Rio.

According to Lewandowski, the exchange of information between security forces is common. According to him, Castro requested the National Force to act in the state, where the federal government made itself available and allowed travel to Rio.

This Tuesday, the 28th, the most lethal police operation in Rio’s history left at least 119 people dead, according to the Rio de Janeiro government. The action was carried out in the Penha and Alemão complexes, and was the subject of an emergency meeting called by Lula this Wednesday morning.