São Paulo, Brazil – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Donald Trump met yesterday at the White House. 

The meeting lasted about three hours and was attended by Brazilian ministers, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and trade representatives.

While the two leaders have disagreed on a range of issues – from tariffs to extraditions – since Trump took office last year, they reported that the meeting was productive.

“Just concluded my meeting with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the very dynamic President of Brazil,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “We discussed many topics, including Trade and, specifically, Tariffs. The meeting went very well.”

The representatives from both countries still have meetings scheduled to discuss other topics that have not been publicly disclosed. Other meetings will be scheduled in the coming months as needed, the Republican president noted. 

For his part, Lula provided more details in a press conference after the meeting, which was broadcast online.

According to the South American president, he proposed creating a working group for representatives of both countries to discuss trade differences over the next 30 days.

As was the case with many countries, Brazil was in the crosshairs of Trump’s aggressive trade policy for much of last year.

In July 2025, the U.S. imposed a 40% tariff on Brazilian imports. After months of negotiating, the White House withdrew the tariffs in November, keeping just a 10% tax. 

The Brazilian government aims to remove the remaining tariffs and, in addition, discuss the investigation opened by the Americans regarding Pix (an instant payment method created by the Central Bank of Brazil). The investigation arose because of Section 301, a provision of the United States Trade Act of 1974 that allows the American government to investigate and retaliate against countries that adopt trade practices considered unfair.

Also on social media, Lula commented on the meeting between the two. The Brazilian said that he left the meeting with the perception of having taken an important step between the two countries, and that Brazil is prepared to discuss, in addition to tariffs, critical minerals, the fight against organized crime and drug and arms trafficking.

“We have no veto or forbidden subject. The only thing we will not give up is our democracy and our sovereignty,” Lula concluded.

Featured image: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Donald Trump met at the White House on May 6, 2026.

Image credit: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva via X.

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With mounting international and regional pressure to combat organised crime, Brazil has sought to strengthen its domestic security strategies. However, some experts argue that the country’s greatest vulnerability lies within its own prison system, where criminal factions are not contained, but consolidated.

“In Brazil, prisons have become instruments of cohesion for criminal groups,” noted Roberto Uchôa de Oliveira Santos, a public security specialist and former employee of the civil and federal police forces in the country, while in conversation with Brazil Reports. 

“Organised crime was born inside the prison system,” where new members were recruited, low-level criminals were promoted within criminal structures and gang identities were reaffirmed, he added. 

This dynamic has proven structurally resilient, continuing to reproduce despite successive reform attempts. Prisons, in fact, are training grounds for organised crime “mercenaries” where “there is no difficulty recruiting as long as young men are being put in jail,” according to Santos.

Prisons-turned-recruitment centres 

Groups including the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV) – which operate in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, respectively – are not only surviving, but expanding, despite many of their leaders being locked away.

What’s more: their origins in the prison system of the 1990s have not hindered their expansion. 

Brazil’s history has been marked by penitentiary violence, which has demonstrated the role of the prison system in strengthening organised crime groups within prison walls, transcending incarceration to expand outside. 

Spectacles of coordinated violence such as the 2006 “May Attacks”, where 74 penitentiaries in the state of São Paulo rebelled simultaneously while carrying out attacks against military bases, police stations and civilians, illustrate these phenomena. 

Brazil’s prisons continue to feel the effect of mass incarceration policies, intensified under the 2006 Brazilian Drug Law which contributed to a surge in pre-trial detentions, punitive approaches to low-level drugs offences, the deterioration of rehabilitative programmes and overcrowding.

Criminal groups’ resilience is reinforced behind bars 

While a large number of leaders of the PCC and CV remain behind bars, their illicit markets and industries continue to metastasise, converting the PCC into a transnational criminal group and the CV into an adaptable criminal force.

Even when leaders are transferred to high-security prisons, both criminal groups have a particular knack for expansion, though their modi operandi are starkly distinct, Santos highlighted. 

Whereas the PCC utilises more insidious forms of violence, confronting the State is not to their benefit. The group, according to the expert, controls the “homicide tax” of targets in São Paulo, whereby they regulate and even reduce violence at their own will. 

This enables the group to expand under the radar, in turn a highly-profitable pursuit as “great profits come from staying low-profile.” In favelas, this system dictates the way of life, from selling internet to providing water supply – irrespective of leaders’ imprisonment. 

The group’s franchise-style structure – governed by semi-autonomous command cells known as sintonías – ensures that leadership is institutionalised rather than personalised. The PCC counts an estimated 40,000 initiated (“baptised”) members, along with a wider network of associates; each sintonía controls specific industries and markets, extending the group’s reach across sectors. 

The CV, by contrast, operates on a far more territorial basis with an even flatter hierarchy, in which low-level leaders enjoy considerable independence. 

These structures render decapitation or kingpin strategies ineffective, and make both groups exceptionally difficult to dismantle, Santos explained. 

Police raids offer little relief as well: favelas across both Rio and São Paulo are practically untouched by state presence and are largely run by sintonías.

“No rehabilitation” programmes 

While rehabilitation programmes exist in law and strategies to change the prison system are in place under the National Secretariat of Penal Policies (SENAPPEN), Santos revealed that results are yet to materialise: in reality, the prospect of leaving an organised crime group remains extremely low.

With a growing number of young men in prison for crimes such as drug-dealing offences, these groups are, rather counter-intuitively, regenerating within the prison walls.

Recent trends demonstrate that those imprisoned for drug-dealing offences are even promoted within criminal structures during their time in prison.

Prisons serve as a rallying force for both the PCC and CV, especially given the level of rivalry between the two criminal groups. 

Santos revealed that criminal members are often advised to declare which group they belong to on arrest, emphasizing that Brazilian prisons are predominantly “CV prisons or PCC prisons” due to previous clashes between groups causing high levels of violence within prison walls. 

This unspoken segregation reinforces criminal identities while pushing rehabilitation schemes to the margins. 

“Rehabilitation for young men like this does not exist,” he pointed out, revealing that those imprisoned will likely reoffend as gang members without employment or educational opportunities outside. Young men, in fact, often turn to criminal activity to overcome socio-economic disadvantages. 

Rafael Velasco Brandani, National Secretary for Penal Policies, echoed this concern, warning that “the lack of investment in infrastructure is another factor that strengthens criminal factions. 

“It is essential to reform the prison system to provide non-violent or minor offenders with viable alternatives to incarceration,” he stressed. 

Criminal governance means high impunity

Despite a 20% decrease in homicide rates and 2025 being described as Brazil’s safest year in a decade, these figures do not fully capture the entrenched reality of criminal governance across the country. 

Impunity remains widespread due to entrenched corruption within various “industries, institutions and the financial system,” driven by profit; Santos noted that the digitalisation of the financial system has allowed these groups to mushroom. 

While declining homicide rates are often celebrated, they risk obscuring more subtle forms of pragmatic violence by criminal groups that go unnoticed. According to his analysis, utilitarian violence allows the PCC to instrumentalise State structures as it pleases.

The PCC, for example, bribed the police to kill one of its enemies at the biggest airport in Brazil, in broad daylight. As per the analyst, this is the most stark example of the silent coercion with which the criminal group operates.  

This is consistent with the rising number of police officers implicated in organised crime, as well as the growing presence of militias – vigilante groups composed largely of current and former police who have turned to contract killing – now spreading across the country. 

“The PCC, for example, has a sintonía of ties, called the ‘sintonía dos gravatas’; they pay for college and university for marginalised people to become lawyers,” the analyst singled out. He added that the PCC finances the training and education required for the policemen, judges and prosecutors who work for them. 

This covert level of investment, which is seemingly benevolent for under-privileged groups, is what makes the PCC such a formidable organised crime group.

Reform challenges

These cases illustrate how deeply criminal organisations can embed themselves within institutions, and raises a critical question: can meaningful reform occur while police corruption remains so pervasive? 

One possible answer lies in the APAC-style prisons emerging in Brazil. These facilities operate independently of state and police control, reducing opportunities for corruption. Instead, the non-profit model depends on incarcerated individuals to lead their own rehabilitation.

Brazil’s major criminal factions have long since evolved from prison gangs into sophisticated organisations presiding over resilient criminal economies. Unlike Mexican cartels – whose power is often performed through periodic spectacles of violence and overt narco-propaganda – the PCC and CV operate with greater subtlety.

Camouflaged, these criminal networks proliferate in Brazil, while the country’s flailing prison system inadvertently continues to facilitate the cohesion and capacities of these groups. 

Without structural reforms, Brazil’s prisons will remain incubators for organised crime, with consequences far beyond national borders.

Featured image: Segundo dados da Brigada Militar, o Presídio Central de Porto Alegre conta hoje com 4.193 detentos, quando sua capacidade estrutural é para 1.905 pessoas.
Author: Bernardo Jardim Ribeiro
Source: Sul21
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São Paulo, Brazil — Jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro will today begin serving the rest of his sentence on house arrest after a weeklong hospital stay.

Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year and three-month prison sentence for an attempted coup d’état after losing his re-election bid in 2022, was hospitalized at DF Star hospital in Brasília, the capital, for more than a week due to health complications.

A medical bulletin indicated that the 71-year-old ally of U.S. President Donald Trump has a case of bacterial pneumonia.

“Former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro remains hospitalized at the DF Star hospital, after being diagnosed with bilateral bacterial pneumonia resulting from an episode of bronchoaspiration. He currently shows no signs of acute infection and is showing good clinical progress. He will remain under clinical observation for the next 24 hours, with a projected hospital discharge on March 27,” wrote the medical team responsible for the former president in their latest press release.

The decision to send the right-wing firebrand to house arrest was signed by Alexandre de Moraes, a minister of the Supreme Federal Court, on March 24. Moraes was the judge responsible for Bolsonaro’s case in the Brazilian Supreme Court.

The authorization came after the former president’s wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, visited Moraes in his office in Brasília, as reported by the Brazilian press, and after the Attorney General’s Office received the request from the former president’s defense and expressed its support for house arrest.

Jair Bolsonaro had already been relocated from the Federal Police Superintendency, where he initially was serving his sentence, to the Papudinha penitentiary complex. 

The state prison had a larger room for the former president, with a television and space for exercise. It is also where two of Bolsonaro’s former ministers, convicted in the same attempted coup case, are serving their sentences: Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice, and Silvinei Vasques, former director of the Federal Highway Police.

The expectation is that Bolsonaro will be discharged from the hospital later today and return to his residence in the federal capital.

Featured image: Jair Bolsonaro

Image credit: Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom via Agência Brasil

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Brazil is facing heightened pressure both internally and from the United States to designate criminal gangs operating in the country as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). 

Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira spoke to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 8 and pushed back against the designation, arguing it could create precedents for military intervention similar to the recent American operations against Venezuela’s alleged drug trafficking networks.

The dispute intersects with Brazil’s own election year, where the designation could hand ammunition to right-wing candidates calling for harder security measures.

As of late, the country has managed to withstand U.S. pressure via legislative action. Brazil’s Anti-Terrorism Law defines terrorism as acts intended to provoke “social or generalized terror” on the basis of race, color, ethnicity or religion. Notably, it explicitly excludes profit-driven drug trafficking. 

Deadly Rio de Janeiro raids: A precedent for U.S. pressure?

The October 28, 2025 raids in the northern Rio de Janeiro favelas resulted in 132 casualties, and were labeled as the deadliest in recent years. Meanwhile, they have also cast a long shadow over Brazil’s security capacity. 

What was intended to be an operation against the leaders of the Comando Vermelho (CV) drug trafficking group ended in the slaughter of over 120 people including four police officers.

Governor Cláudio Castro of the Liberal Party, who instructed the police on the raid, argued that this form of hard-handed policy is needed to uproot organized crime in the city: 

“This is how the Rio police are treated by criminals: with bombs dropped by drones. This is the scale of the challenge we face. This is not ordinary crime, but narco-terrorism,” said Castro. 

While many agree that more can be done in the country to prevent the expansion of these groups, some challenge any theoretical benefit that FTO designations could prompt. 

For one, Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski stood beside Rio’s governor a day following the strike: “Terrorism always involves an ideological element,” the minister said. 

Criminal gangs, on the other hand, “commit offenses already defined in the Penal Code,” he told Agencia Brasil.

The real crisis of organized crime

Roberto Uchôa de Oliveira Santos, public security specialist and former employee of the civil and federal police forces in Brazil, highlighted that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Donald Trump have had talks about collaborating over the issues of illicit firearm flows and money laundering, which Lula reiterated on X on March 18. 

Uchôa de Oliveira Santos told Brazil Reports that while it is important for “governments to work together across the region, [the designation is] not understood as an act of partnership” on the part of the Brazilian government. Rather, it is interpreted as a form of “geopolitical pressure” with dubious benefits.

He added that “it is not the objective of President Trump to fight criminal organizations” in Brazil. In fact, he believes this narrative conceals the U.S.’s hidden agenda. Conceding to his pressure, he added, would be a “huge mistake”; the extent of criminal governance, whereby criminal groups can control the police, judiciary, prosecutor’s office and political actors is “a virus”. 

Curbing the power of transnational crime groups such as the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and CV requires more than Trump’s designation and military-led strategy which tends to follow, the expert added. 

While outlining that “improved communications and intelligence” would upgrade security operations like Rio’s raids, Uchôa de Oliveira Santos wrote in The Conversation that there is no evidence that U.S. methods work.

Labelling organizations driven by illicit market profits as terrorists overlooks the fundamental networking nature of groups like the PCC and CV, according to Dr. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government; in the end, these groups adapt to market opportunities. 

Uchôa de Oliveira Santos highlighted how, contrary to contemporary organizations which utilize spectacles of power to incite fear, the PCC uses forms of pragmatic violence – which often fall under the radar. 

“Instead of fighting the State, [the groups are allowed] to penetrate violence within the mechanism of the State,” Uchôa de Oliveira Santos added. The PCC, for example, bribed and co-opted policemen to murder of businessman Antonio Vinicius Gritzbach on their behalf in November 2024. 

Others decry the FTO designation could serve as a pretext for the U.S.’s CIA or FBI to enter Brazil, which would be an affront to their national sovereignty. 

Brazil remains resistant to following the example of Ecuador, where President Daniel Noboa recently invited the establishment of an FBI office on their sovereign territory. 

Read more: Colombia’s Petro accuses Ecuador of bombing near border

Mario Sarrubbo, former São Paulo prosecutor-general, explained to Valor International: “The move to declare them terrorists would only make the country vulnerable internationally to economic embargoes and even territorial violations, which would be unreasonable under any circumstances.”

FTO designations and Brazil’s upcoming elections

Geopolitical conditions have compounded on the Rio raids, creating a more partisan landscape of opinion on Brazil’s security – which is already a concern to emotive voters. 

Governor Castro called the raid a “success”, and has since aligned with the hard-handed policy of the Trump administration. Greater support from the Armed Forces, he said, is needed to protect Rio. 

Meanwhile, Tarcísio de Freitas, Republicanos Party member and Governor of São Paulo, stated that a potential FTO designation is an “opportunity” for Brazil on March 11.

“From the moment that a government like the U.S. sees the PCC as a terrorist organization – which is in fact what they are – it is easier to open the way for cooperation, integrate intelligence, access financial resources and structure an even more effective fight,” said Freitas. 

Uchôa de Oliveira Santos, however, challenged how effective security policy aligned with the FTO designation could be. The expert sees the designation as a form of geopolitical pressure under Trump’s so-called “Donroe Doctrine.”

With Brazilian general elections approaching on October 4, 2026, there is concern that the designation could become a domestic political weapon in a country which is already deeply polarized: right-wing candidates may embrace it as validation for harder security policies, while the Lula government faces the dilemma of appearing either soft on crime or subservient to Washington.

Amidst the clamour, dealing with the potential threats posed by the PCC and CV fades into the background of political debate. As Uchôa de Oliveira Santos suggests, the profit-driven, entrepreneurial, and resilient nature of these criminal groups would be overlooked if they were to be designated as FTOs.

Featured image: Civil police officers from the Robbery and Theft of Cargo Division during Operation Containment
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Author: CanalGov
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As of 2026, Brazil is home to one of the largest pet populations in the world, trailing only behind China and the U.S. with over 168 million registered pets. 

The country represents the largest and most mature pet care market in Latin America, reflecting a broad shift in how households view animals: increasingly humanized and essential to family life. 

More widely, Brazilian culture has recently come under international spotlight for its hard stance in favor of animal rights and welfare. In February 2026, thousands marched across the country demanding justice for “Orelha” (Ear), a “community dog” who was killed by three teenagers in the southeastern city of Florianopolis.  

The impact extended beyond civil society. On Thursday, March 12, Minister of Institutional Relations Gleisi Hoffmann announced the “Orelha Dog” decree, which toughens penalties for animal abuse – named as a tribute to the late Florianopolis pet. 

This intensification of pet-human bonds has become increasingly evident since the COVID-19 pandemic, as adoption rates have risen significantly – driving higher demand for food, veterinary services, and a wider range of pet wellness products that adapt to living standards in Brazil. 

A booming pet economy

The pet food industry in Brazil is expected to grow at an estimated annual rate of 7.5% through 2026, and the current market value is estimated to reach $14 billion USD by the end of the year, incentivizing startups and innovation in the region. 

E-commerce is also becoming a leading market in Brazil, with over 40.6% of online revenue coming from virtual pet shops, and attracting foreign investment via imports, as well as accelerator opportunities now arriving to the wider region.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in fact, reports that Latin America is the third-largest market for U.S. dog and cat food exports, importing $162 million in 2024 – which represented an 11% increase from 2023. Growth is expected to continue as major companies expand production in the region. 

On the innovation front, Brazil also has 140 PetTech startups, driven by high pet ownership rates, urbanization, and foreign investment in major hubs such as São Paulo.

Key players focus on health management, e-commerce, and services, including Petz, DogHero, Zee. Now, PetCamApp and S2 Pets. Several of these firms are leveraging AI for pet IDs, health tracking, and logistics, responding to the wider demand for platforms that uphold the wellbeing of loved furry companions. 

Growth opportunities for Brazilian entrepreneurs

As Brazil’s petcare economy continues to grow, global investors and innovation platforms are increasingly seeking opportunities in the region to incentivize growth for the next generation of pet-care startups. 

Among them, Leap Venture Studio, a pet care startup accelerator, is currently accepting applications for the tenth cohort of its flagship program. The accelerator supports early-stage startups through a 12-week hybrid program (2 weeks in person, 10 online), providing mentorship, marketing support, and $200,000 in funding.

The accelerator began in 2018 through a partnership between Mars, the company behind pet-care brands such as Royal Canin, Whiskas, and Pedigree, and Michelson Found Animals, an animal welfare organization. Since then, the program has invested in a portfolio of 57 companies across nine Cohorts that span 17 markets, extending the accelerator experience to various business models. 

For the upcoming season, Leap has announced a new partnership with TAW Ventures, an investment firm founded by Jane Lauder focused on pet health, wellness and longevity. Leap’s announcement of this partnership describes TAW’s presence as offering Cohort 10 companies even greater strategic guidance as they prepare for commercialization, market entry, and sustainable growth.

By offering early-stage founders funding, mentorship, and access to a global industry network, Leap Venture Studio seeks to bring new technologies and services to a rapidly evolving pet-care market while encouraging more entrepreneurs from Latin America to join its portfolio.

Startups in Latin America that have already worked with the accelerator program include OliverPets in Argentina, CuidaMiMascota in Mexico, and Tobipets in Costa Rica. 

What ultimately matters for growth 

Modern technologies are increasingly reshaping the pet-care sector, as startups focus on services that pet owners can easily access through apps and digital platforms. 

Across Latin America, growing startup ecosystems in innovation hubs such as São Paulo are helping entrepreneurs develop solutions that can scale across the region.

Rising foreign investment from major industry players is also accelerating the expansion of Brazil’s pet economy, creating new opportunities for founders to address emerging consumer needs. These include technologies and services focused on pet longevity, senior pet care, wellness monitoring, and more accessible veterinary solutions.

As pets are increasingly recognized as family members, their longer lifespans are reshaping the industry’s priorities. An aging pet population, combined with the broader humanization trend, is driving demand for preventative health tools, specialized nutrition, and digital services that help owners manage their animals’ well-being throughout their lives.

Brazil, as both a regional and global example of pet prioritization, is set to become an innovative PetTech benchmark. 

Leap Venture Studios is seeking Latin American founders in the PetTech industry for their Cohort 10 program, with applications closing on March 29, 2026. Apply here

Featured image: Benoît Deschausaux via Unsplash+

Disclosure: This article mentions clients of an Espacio portfolio company.

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