Latin America’s crime crisis deepens as gangs and cartels fuel violence

Welcome to Inside Latin America. I'm Monica Iannacchieff in Rio de Janeiro. And this is Rocinha, Latin America's largest favela or slum. It's also one of thousands of neighborhoods across Brazil controlled by the Comando Vermelho, or Red Command, and the Primeiro Comando da Capital, known as PCC. These two criminal organizations have grown far beyond the prison yard and street corners where they began. Today they operate across borders, moving billions of dollars throughout the region. Thanks, Monica. The Red Command's tentacles reach all the way here to Peru, along with other transnational criminal organizations, including the feared Venezuelan Tren de Aragua. I'll be back with more on that. But first, let's go to Venezuela with my colleague Nori Soto. Tren de Aragua, formed 12 years ago inside the Tacorán prison in northwest Venezuela. Through extortion and drug trafficking, it eventually took control of the jails and spread to other areas of Venezuela. As Venezuela's economy began to collapse in the late 2010s, an unprecedented wave of refugees fled through Latin America and into the United States, enabling the gang to expand its footprint beyond Venezuela's borders. Tren de Aragua is Venezuela's only transnational criminal organization, a sprawling network that spans in nine countries and has thousands of suspected members. It generates millions in profits through extortion, human trafficking and the drug trade. Authorities across Latin America continue to contend with its threats, from Costa Rica to Colombia, where one of Tren de Aragua's founders was captured. While Chile and Brazil have recently arrested alleged money launderers linked to the organization. Last year, the United States designated the Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization and deported more than 200 alleged members to a mega prison in El Salvador. Then, in June, the U.S. military dealt the group a major blow, bombing the compound of gang's top leader, Héctor Niño Guerrero, and killing him. Despite some experts saying strikes like this could violate international law, the Trump administration insists they are lawful. Nori Soto, Al Jazeera, Caracas. Thank you, Noris. That U.S. bombing in Venezuela was a wake-up call in the region. Washington's recent designation of Brazil's PCC and Red Command as terrorist groups is fueling a debate here, with many Brazilians asking, should they be treated as criminals or as terrorists? Across Rio de Janeiro, communities are caught between criminal factions and police. For some families, the cost is devastating. Tamiris lost her nine-year-old daughter to a stray bullet. She was shot in the head. Did anything change since then? Nothing. Violence has only increased. But Rio's violence is only part of the story. The United States recently designated Brazil's two largest criminal organizations, the Red Command and the Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, as foreign terrorist organizations, reigniting a debate over how they should be confronted. Born in Brazil's prisons, both are now transnational criminal networks. When you think about Brazil's largest criminal organization, this is not the image that comes to mind. We're on Faria Lima, the heart of Brazil's financial district. But investigators say that it is here that the PCC has climbed the economic ladder, hiding in plain sight among these corporate buildings while laundering millions of dollars through cryptocurrencies, digital banks and legitimate businesses. But drugs remain its biggest business. Around 60% of cocaine shipped from Brazil to Europe leaves through the port of Santos, Latin America's largest. From Santos, traffickers move drugs through several routes, mostly to Europe, but they're also using African ports. Making detection more difficult and adding new markets, Australia and New Zealand. Police now use underwater drones to search ships for cocaine attached below the waterline. When we began making drug seizures around 2015, the main destination was Europe, so we started inspecting all containers headed there. Now traffickers have new routes through Africa. We're now scanning all ships heading there as well. Prosecutor Lincoln Gaikia says the PCC now operates in 28 countries, but he warns that U.S. designation could also have unintended consequences for Brazil's economy. The effects will also be felt here in Brazil because our banking system is deeply interconnected with the U.S. financial system. They could face indirect exposure if, for example, a major bank opened an account or received deposits from someone who was later discovered to have links to the PCC or Red Command. Brazil is not alone. Both groups have expanded across borders, turning a Brazilian problem into a regional one. Thanks, Monica. Traffickers here in Peru export more than 300 tons of cocaine and illegal gold miners yield profits of nearly $12 billion every year. Both illicit activities are now intertwined in a convenient alliance among local mafias and transnational criminal partners. A raid in La Pampa, one of Peru's most notorious illegal gold mining camps. Police increasing their crackdown against organized crime. The expansion of illegal gold mining and cocaine production is thriving in a convenient criminal alliance. Coca leaf farms and cocaine production labs are proliferating near gold extraction sites, gangs secure roads and rivers to transport drugs and gold out. Light planes land on hundreds of clandestine airstrips in the Amazon with machinery and supplies for the gold exploitation and take off packed with cocaine. The criminal economy yielding billions of dollars annually are a magnet. Wilbert, a former drug trafficker, says young Peruvians are working alongside transnational criminal organizations. There's practically no work, only jobs in transporting drugs in backpacks. There are women, even children as young as 14 already doing this and there are foreigners working. Here in this region, mostly Venezuelans, they're involved mostly in the maceration of coca leaves to make the cocaine. Eight presidents and nearly 30 interior ministers in a decade have weakened the ability for a comprehensive crime-fighting strategy. Furthermore, critics say a series of laws enacted by Congress enable criminal activity. A deficit in policing in large inhospitable frontier areas allows criminal organizations like the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua, Brazil's Red Command, the Lobos and the Choneros gangs from Ecuador and Colombia to operate in Peru. In this context, Peru becomes a safe haven because it allows them to carry out their illicit activities with absolute impunity. These international criminal organizations are not interested in having permanent control over Peruvian territory, but rather in establishing branches that allow them to cultivate, process, store and ship various drugs like cocaine or gold for quick export. Keiko Fujimori won the recent presidential election on promises to restore law and order. Fujimori says she'll seek closer ties with Washington and may join the U.S.-backed initiative known as Shield of the Americas to fight organized crime and drug trafficking. Many Peruvians say they expect her to deliver results right away. Thank you, Mariana. A recent poll shows that 6 in every 10 Brazilians support classifying the PCC and Red Command as terrorist organizations, but support drops when the question involves the United States. Many Brazilians want tougher action against organized crime, but also want Brazil to remain in control of the response. Earlier we spoke to Rubem Duarte, professor at the Brazilian Army Command and General Staff College. The U.S. has designated other criminal groups as terrorist organizations. Has this made any difference? You're totally right. In the region we saw that, especially in Colombia and Mexico, because the United States historically wants to tackle this issue from the production perspective, not from the consumption side, because it's much easier to make strong military actions in the southern countries instead on their own territory. What lessons can Brazil take from this? Brazil must learn that these kind of issues by itself won't do much. However, the international pressure will grow. Is this really a security decision or part of a broader U.S. geopolitical strategy in the region? I'll say that both, because drug trafficking is a strong issue in the United States, especially in the borders. However, Trump has shown very skillful in using these kind of maneuvers to gain leverage in other issues, such as trade negotiations and finance and banking. What about the timing? This is happening months before Brazil's presidential election, with one candidate, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, going to the U.S. and asking specifically for the U.S. government to designate these groups as terrorists. Will this affect the elections? This most definitely will play an important part in the Brazilian elections, because security has been a strong debate in Brazilian elections for more than a decade now. So one side, the right-wing, will pressure for a stronger response to these kind of groups. And the other side, Lula da Silva, is expected to defend Brazilian sovereignty. So this is happening just as much of Latin America is shifting towards the right. Did security play a role in this? It has a huge weight in Latin America, because security is a huge issue all over the countries. And this wave of far right has a strong characteristic in stressing security. We've heard how governments, prosecutors and ordinary Brazilians see these criminal organizations. Now another perspective from the people who once operated inside them. The men we're about to meet spent decades inside the Comando Vermelho. They led drug trafficking operations. They served long prison sentences. And now they host a podcast where they speak openly about the criminal world they helped build. We're here because they understand how these organizations work on the inside. Every week the hosts interview former inmates who are trying to rebuild their lives. We asked the hosts whether they see their former Red Command colleagues as terrorists. A criminal organization has nothing to do with terrorism. A terrorist is someone who brings down buildings, blows up cars, attacks schools and kills large numbers of children. Brazil's gangs traffic drugs for profit. They also reject the idea that the problem begins in Brazil's favelas. We know where the weapons come from. They come from the United States. We don't manufacture American assault rifles here. So instead of labeling favela residents as terrorists, why don't they focus on stopping those weapons at the border? Beyond the debate over the designation, a question remains. How will this new chapter affect the fight against organized crime and the lives of those millions living in its shadow across Latin America? And now back to our headquarters in Doha.