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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRASILIA 001493 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/BSC, S/CT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM KJUS PTER EFIN PREL PGOV AR PA CO BR
SUBJECT: COUNTERTERRORISM IN BRAZIL: JUDGE BLASTS 
GOVERNMENT'S WEAK EFFORTS 
 
REF: A. BRASILIA 1315 
     ¶B. BRASILIA 1910 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: During a conference on international 
organized crime held by the Brazil-based International Forum 
of Justice in Campo Grande, Matto Grosso do Sul from October 
15-17, federal judge Odilon de Oliveira delivered a speech 
that was blistering in its criticism of the Brazilian 
government's lax posture on confronting terrorism, citing as 
examples the failure to pass anti-terrorism legislation, 
refusing to treat the Sao Paulo based PCC (First Capital 
Command) and other gangs, as well as Hizballah and FARC, as 
terrorist groups and turning a blind eye to their activities 
abroad as well as domestically (see septel for additional 
reporting on the conference).  Oliveira and his efforts to 
fight international organized crime in Matto Grosso do Sul -- 
which sees the trafficking of guns and drugs across the 
state's borders with Paraguay and Bolivia regularly -- have 
gained him immense respect in Brazil and made him an 
effective advocate for a vigorous response from the 
government and society against the global threat of 
terrorism, one whom Post is already working with to spread 
his message and expertise more broadly within Brazil.  End 
summary. 
 
   --------------------------------------------- ------ 
A Lonely Battle Against Terrorism, Money Laundering 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) Before his presentation poloff and Embassy's 
Resident Legal Advisor (RLA) spoke to Oliveira, who spoke 
briefly about his disappointment with recent criticism of his 
work and that of the money laundering courts, by Supreme 
Court (STF) president Gilmar Mendes (ref A), who compared the 
courts to militias because they working together with 
prosecutors and special federal police units, something 
Mendes considers inappropriate.  Oliveira thought the money 
laundering courts were one of the most effective tools Brazil 
has for fighting organized crime and terrorism, and that only 
by working in conjunction with the other elements of the law 
enforcement community could they be effective, particularly 
as Brazil lacks other legal tools to fight terrorism, such as 
an anti-terrorism law.  He took Mendes criticism to be 
another indication that in Brazil those pursuing criminals 
have a higher chance of being punished that the criminals 
themselves. 
 
¶3. (SBU) With regards to money laundering, RLA raised the 
possibility of working together to put together a training 
course for the 27 judges in Brazil who specialize in money 
laundering, perhaps bringing in judges from Argentina and 
Paraguay.  Oliveira indicated he would support such an effort 
and pledged to participate in it. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Brazil is Turning a Blind Eye 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Judge de Oliveira started his presentation -- which 
was held before a crowd of Brazilian and international 
prosecutors and judges, Brazilian police officers from 
several states, local law school students, and hundreds of 
cadets from the state military police academy -- by defining 
terrorism as "the illegal use of physical violence or 
psychological intimidation against the state, authorities, or 
population motivated by religious, nationalist, moral or 
ethnic reasons." In addition to categorizing the different 
terrorist groups around the world, such as Al-Qaida, 
Hizballah, HAMAS, and FARC, according to their motivation, 
he, interestingly, added a kind of terrorism he called 
"administrative terrorism", that encompasses gangs such as 
the PCC, that seek to attack or replace the repressive police 
state. 
 
¶5. (U) Unfortunately, according to judge Oliveira, Brazilian 
national leaders continue to ignore the reality that there is 
evidence that all of the groups mentioned, in fact, had or 
continue to have, a presence in Brazil.  He observed that, 
 
BRASILIA 00001493  002 OF 003 
 
 
while Brazilian leaders have approved international 
anti-terrorism conventions they did so only as a sop to the 
international community, not because Brazilians believe in 
the threat.  "If the government is truly concerned about the 
threat", he noted, "why is there no anti-terrorism law?" He 
further called on the Brazilian government to pass 
legislation to rectify this situation, adding, "how is it 
possible that we have not updated the only law we have 
against terrorism, which dates to 1984, a time of military 
dictatorship?" Further he added, "we have an inadequate money 
laundering law that Brazil only grudgingly passed after ten 
years of pressure from the international community." 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
There is terrorism in Brazil, both domestic and international 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶6. (U) Oliveira also noted what to him was the astounding 
contrast between Brazil's refusal to recognize the threat 
with his observation that Brazil, in fact, "has a tradition 
of terrorism within its borders".  Noted Oliveira, "there is 
extensive evidence of terrorist activity in Brazil," adding, 
"I personally judged cases of individuals linked to terrorist 
organizations such as Hizballah involved in identity document 
fraud and various financial crimes." He further noted that 
terrorists involved in various attacks have been in Brazil, 
including Marwan al Safadi, who participated in the 1993 
World Trade Center bombing, and 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheykh 
Mohammed.  "How can it be that their presence in Brazil fails 
to move Brazil to action" he protested, "even after knowing 
that (the latter) was responsible for twenty Brazilians 
losing their lives in the September 11 attacks." 
 
¶7. (U) Oliveira then showed powerful emotional newsreel 
footage that visibly disturbed the attendees showing the 
aftermath of terrorist acts, including beheadings, the 
attacks in Iraq that killed Brazilian diplomat Sergio Viera 
de Mello, and attacks conducted by the PCC in Sao Paulo in 
¶2006.  After showing a clip of the aftermath of the 1994 AMIA 
bombing, de Oliveira asked, "if Hizballah can attack in 
Argentina, why couldn't they attack in Brasilia? We know they 
already operate in Brazil and yet we have no solidarity with 
our Argentine brothers and refuse to identify Hizballah as a 
terrorist group." 
 
¶8. (U) He also criticized the government for failing to stand 
in solidarity with Colombia, another Latin American country 
who has suffered from the scourge of terrorism.  According to 
Oliveira, "Colombia was right when it conducted an attack 
along the border with Ecuador against Raul Reyes, and Brazil 
should have recognized Colombia's right to defend itself." 
But, on the contrary, Brazil is "timid and merciful when it 
comes to terrorists." Observing that the FARC has a presence 
in Brazil (and showing a newsreel of a Brazilian along the 
border with Colombia who claimed to witness FARC movements), 
he criticized Brazil for granting asylum to 475 FARC soldiers 
(56 during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso era and 411 during 
the Lula government).  Calling it an insult to the victims of 
the group's terrorism, he also decried the asylum granted 
Francisco Antonio Cadena (see ref b for more on Cadena's 
asylum), FARC representative in Brazil, done with support 
from leftist political parties in Brazil who mobilized 
against his extradition to Colombia.  Going further, he 
blasted the government for giving a job to Cadena's wife, 
Angela Maria Slongo (Note: According to various news reports, 
Slongo was nominated by the Office of the Presidency to a 
position in the Special Secretariat for Fisheries. End note.) 
 
 
¶9. (U) He criticized what he sees as the government's 
ineffectual response to the threat from the PCC and other 
gangs in Brazil, who Brazil still treats with kid gloves, but 
which, as a result of their evolution from prison gangs into 
international criminal organizations that use terrorist 
tactics, merit more than business-as-usual countermeasures. 
(Note: In discussions with RLA at the margins of the 
conference, a Portuguese prosecutor who attended the 
conference noted that Brazil's gangs were operating in 
 
BRASILIA 00001493  003 OF 003 
 
 
Portugal, and that Portugal would be looking for cooperation 
from Brazil and the United States in order to learn about the 
threat and how to confront it.  End note.)  The PCC committed 
over 1000 criminal actions, including killing 185 people, 115 
of which were policemen, according to Oliveira.  Today the 
group is increasingly active in this state, along the borders 
with Paraguay and Colombia, but the government is doing 
little about, he noted. (Note: three days before, on 14 
October, Matto Grosso do Sul daily Folha do Povo reported 
that five Brazilian members of the PCC had been arrested in 
Paraguay, close to the border with Matto Grosso do Sul, for 
trafficking drugs into Brazil.  End note.) 
 
------------------ 
Recommendations 
------------------ 
 
¶10. (U) Closing his presentation, judge Oliveira outlined a 
set of common sense and fairly easy to implement steps Brazil 
could take in order to step up its contribution to the fight 
against terrorism and implored Brazil's leaders to move 
forward on them: enforce Brazilian laws, particularly those 
dealing with money laundering and organized crime; enforce 
treaties; grant extraditions; enact anti-terrorism 
legislation; identify or designate terrorists groups; not 
associate in any way with members of terrorist groups; and 
finally, not grant asylum to terrorists. 
 
---------- 
Comment 
---------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Our working-level relationship with our 
counterterrorism partners within Brazil's law-enforcement 
community continues to be excellent.  It is nevertheless the 
case that at the policy levels Brazil does not see terrorism 
as a security issue for the country.  Instead, Brazilian 
high-level officials couch their counterterrorism rhetoric in 
terms of solidarity with those who have suffered from 
terrorist attacks and in terms of helping prevent the use of 
Brazilian territory for attacks in the United States. 
Brazil's failure to deal with terrorism as a matter of 
government policy can be attributed in part to the perception 
that terrorism is principally a U.S.-based problem, a belief 
that is in turn exacerbated by a dearth of independent 
Brazilian experts who can criticize the government's position 
without being seen as pawns of the United States.  Judge 
Oliveira, on the other hand is one of a handful of people in 
Brazil who have thought seriously about issues related to 
terrorism and how they could impact Brazil.   Poloff and RLA 
discussed and are already working with Oliveira to shed some 
light on the issues he raised in his presentation with 
different audiences within Brazil, through training courses 
and fora.  He will be an important and powerful voice in 
Brazil that can be added to the project now under way -- with 
the help of the Counterterrorism Awareness Program, which 
sent two Brazilian International Visitors to the United 
States to meet with counterterrorism experts -- to create a 
critical mass of experts within Brazil who can argue, more 
effectively than post can, why Brazil also faces this global 
threat and why Brazil should take steps -- beyond the 
operational level -- to confront it.  End comment. 
SOBEL