Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday rejected US intervention in response to a US decision to label two Brazilian criminal factions as foreign terrorist organisations, insisting that Brazil will fight organised crime on its own.

“We refuse to be treated like children, or like a banana republic,” Lula said at an event in Sergipe state. He added that he was “saddened” by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks suggesting that Brazilian criminals are terrorists and Americans can intervene.

The US Department of State on Thursday designated two Brazilian criminal groups – Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital – as Specially Designated Global Terrorists and will list them as Foreign Terrorist Organisations starting June 5, claiming their influence extends beyond Brazil into the United States.

Lula said the factions are a nuisance for Brazilians in peripheral areas and will be fought internally. “They are not the terrorists that Trump wants,” he added.

The president also noted that smuggled weapons entering Brazil come from the United States, and that US states like Delaware are involved in money laundering linked to Brazilians.

Earlier Friday, the Brazilian government released a statement saying that it has been consistently fighting the two criminal groups and other militias, stressing that these Brazilian factions, motivated by profit, are different from international terrorism, which is driven by political or religious motives.

The statement also called it “deplorable” that “once again members of the Bolsonaro family are travelling to the United States to defend foreign intervention in Brazil.”

• A Tell Media / Xinhua report