Brazil's Senate unanimously approved a constitutional amendment that expands federal authority to confront organised crime, delivering a major legislative victory to recently reelected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The proposal passed two rounds without opposition after clearing the lower house in March and is expected to be formally enacted later in the week.
The reform creates a dedicated public security ministry and reorganises coordination among federal, state and local agencies. It also directs additional resources toward investigations and operations against the First Command of the Capital, known as the PCC, and Rio de Janeiro's Red Command, or CV, the country's most influential criminal organisations.
Gang leaders and members would face mandatory placement in maximum-security prisons, tighter limits on parole and broader asset seizures. Those measures target the networks' ability to maintain command structures from prison and recycle proceeds through legal businesses, logistics operations and local political protection.
Senators removed a provision that would have reduced the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16. Security specialists and lawmakers argued that the change would do little to dismantle leadership structures and could expose more adolescents to recruitment inside an overcrowded prison system.
The vote followed an election in which public safety ranked among voters' leading concerns. Drug-trafficking factions have extended their reach across the country, including large areas of the Amazon, while paramilitary-style militias have consolidated territorial and economic control in Rio de Janeiro and other urban centres.
The reform also sits inside a dispute with Washington. The United States designated the PCC and CV as foreign terrorist organisations in June, a move Lula described as interference intended to help his rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro supported the amendment remotely but had campaigned for Brazil itself to apply a terrorism label to the groups.
Constitutional authority and harsher sentences will not by themselves produce a national security system. The practical test will be whether the new ministry can integrate intelligence, trace criminal finance, improve prison control and work with governors without turning federal coordination into a struggle over jurisdiction or partisan command.
