Police investigate Brazil's intelligence chief with Bolsonaro for illegal espionage

Brazil's Federal Police have opened an investigation against the former head of the intelligence agency during Jair Bolsonaro's mandate because they suspect that he organized a large illegal espionage operation against rivals of the then president, including a governor who is now a minister, judges , parliamentarians, politicians, journalists... In total, there would be about 30,000 people, as revealed by the head of the Federal Police a couple of weeks ago.

The agents have registered this Thursday several addresses linked to Alexandre Ramagen, who in the period 2019-2022 directed the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN) on behalf of the far-right.

Police commissioner, Ramagen, 51, is now a federal deputy.

Ramagen is a man very close to the former president, so this case adds to Bolsonaro's multiple headaches.

The 68-year-old retired military man has faced various investigations and judicial processes since in 2022 he lost the presidency and the immunity that he enjoyed for three decades.

The previous president is disqualified for abuse of power and cannot run in the next two presidential elections, but he is also being investigated for inciting the coup attack on the headquarters of the three powers, trying to keep some jewels given by the Saudi royal family... A Former Minister of Justice and Bolsonaro's personal secretary are imprisoned for the antidemocratic acts of January 2023.

The Supreme Court, which ordered this Thursday's operation, suspects that Ramagen was part of a "criminal organization that sought to illegally monitor people and public authorities" for the "benefit of the Bolsonaro family."

Among the espionage operations without a court order detected during the investigation, the surveillance of the then governor of Ceará, Camilo Santana, of the Workers' Party, now Minister of Education in the Government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, stands out;

the president of the Chamber of Deputies Rodrigo Maia, a wayward Bolsonaro deputy and the prosecutor investigating the murder of Marielle Franco (a leftist councilor from Rio), in addition to attacks on electronic ballot boxes and interference in court cases against members of the Bolsonaro clan .

The researchers point out that one of the tools used was

software

called First Mile, manufactured by the Israeli company Cognyte, with which they infected the mobile phones of their victims without a court order, reports

O Globo

.

The purchase of this spy program and its use have been the subject of media coverage and political debate in Brazil for years, but this is the first time that the investigation officially reaches a former director general of the ABIN agency, who is also close to Bolsonaro.

The most notorious case of telephone spying in recent times in Brazil had as a victim the then president, Dilma Rousseff, whose communications were monitored by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, during the presidency of Barack Obama.

The tapping of the president was part of the massive espionage revealed by analyst Edward Snowden.

That scandal led the Brazilian president to suspend a state visit to Washington and renounce the purchase of some American fighters.

Along with Ramagen, ten other people are also the subject of the operation launched this Thursday, including seven agents of the federal police itself, who have already been suspended from their duties.

Among the several registered locations, the parliamentarian's official office in the Chamber of Deputies, in Brasilia, and his residence.

The former director of the intelligence agency is not in Brasilia, according to the Reuters agency, and has not made any statement since the police announced the investigation against him.

Brazil is immersed in the southern summer holidays and Congress is on recess.

According to the Brazilian press, the police have seized four personal computers, six mobile phones and 20 memory sticks.

But the country is already warming up for the municipal elections in October, in which Ramagen is emerging as a Bolsonaro candidate for mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the second most important city.

This same weekend, the former spy chief was scheduled to meet with former President Bolsonaro, who spends his summers nearby, to campaign together.

The former president has not made any statements in the first hours either, but his political circle assures that the accusations against Ramagen are part of “a persecution” orchestrated by Judge Alexandre de Moraes, one of the 11 members of the Supreme Court and who directs other judicial cases against elements of Bolsonarism.

One of Moraes' investigations is about the attempted coup d'état a year ago, and among those officially named, Bolsonaro, who is suspected of inciting the violent assault on the Presidency, Congress and the headquarters of the Supreme Court.

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