Sérgio Moro: But what was Lula's reaction? He was opposed to that designation, alleging a supposed violation of our sovereignty, as if our sovereignty served to protect those whom Lula called—quotation marks because the phrase is his—"our criminals."
Sérgio Moro: I say that this phrase by Lula, at bottom, revealed the true colors of this Government, which has always been lenient, and even in this action—now opposing the U.S. designation—it went further: it became complicit, became an accomplice in defending those criminal organizations which we can now call terrorists.
As if that were not enough, yesterday we were all surprised by the news of a billion-dollar cut to the budget of our Armed Forces, which will have the practical effect of leaving the control and prevention they carry out at our borders undermanned.
Sérgio Moro: Organized crime, although it has a wide diversification of activities, still has, among them and particularly profitable, drug trafficking and arms trafficking—smuggling and "descaminho" (customs duty evasion); they are sources of wealth, illegal markets controlled by those criminal organizations.
Sérgio Moro: When the Federal Government, in order to make the necessary adjustment to public accounts, cuts precisely in the area of border control, it sends a message—a new negative message—to the criminal world; that is, either we change this course of events, or we replace this Federal Government, or we will see, increasingly, the escalation of organized crime in our country.