Brazil: what is known about the espionage scandal that affects former president Bolsonaro

The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is once again in the eye of the hurricane, with the outbreak of a scandal over an alleged plot to spy on adversaries during his mandate.

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The Bolsonaro family was directly targeted this week, with searches at the home of one of the sons of the former right-wing head of state.who is said to be “persecuted” by the government of his successor, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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Specifically, the Federal Police opened an investigation into an alleged irregular espionage network set up in the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) to closely follow the steps of authorities and political adversaries of Bolsonaro by hacking their cell phones.

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Brazilian authorities also suspect that this plot benefited at least two of the children of the former head of state, Senator Flávio and parliamentary advisor Renanwith the intention of facilitating their defense in cases that both had with the justice system.

These are the keys to the scandal.

How did the scandal break out?

A first police operation in October resulted in the arrest of two officials from the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin), suspected of having illegally used the Israeli spy software FirstMilewhich allows tracking the geolocation of cell phones, during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).

On January 25, the Federal Police raided the house and office of the former head of Abin during the Bolsonaro government, Alexandre Ramagem, and a trusted man of the former president.

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And on Monday the agents searched a beach house where the Bolsonaro family was, as well as the home and office of his son Carlos, a legislator from Rio de Janeiro.

Carlos Bolsonaro's name had already been mentioned in 2020, when a former minister in his father's cabinet, Gustavo Bebianno, said in an interview that the councilor had suggested the creation of a “parallel” Abin.

Bebianno died shortly after of a heart attack.

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In other investigations, Carlos Bolsonaro is suspected of having coordinated a “cabinet of hate” under his father's presidency.a “digital militia” in charge of denigrating opponents on social networks and disseminating false information.

What are the accusations?

The police claim that a “criminal organization” constituted a “parallel structure” within the Abin to “illegally monitor people and public authorities”.

Investigators claim that the suspects used the FirstMile program without authorization to illegally obtain information for the benefit of Jair Bolsonaro and his inner circle.

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Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who authorized the raids, said: The police had identified Carlos Bolsonaro as part of the “political core” of the criminal plot.

“The evidence collected so far indicates that the criminal organization infiltrated into Abin used illegal methods to carry out clandestine acts against people classified as opponents,” indicates one of the court documents.

Who was spied on?

According to the Brazilian press, The police suspect that Abin illegally spied on hundreds of politicians, judges and journalists.

Among them would be Moraes himself, a frequent object of Bolsonaro's wrath for having ordered several investigations against him and his entourage.

Moraes also leads the Superior Electoral Court, which in June declared Bolsonaro ineligible for eight years, for his unfounded statements against the electronic voting system.

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Another supreme court judge, Gilmar Mendes, would have also been in the crosshairs, as well as the former president of the Chamber of Deputies Rodrigo Maia and the then governor of Ceará Camilo Santana, Lula's current Minister of Education.

What does the Bolsonaro camp say?

“I am the icing on the cake, they want my head. And they are only going to have it based on arbitrariness. They try everything,” the former president launched on Thursday. Bolsonaro had said on Monday CNN Brazil that “never” received from Abin “information or geographic location of anyone”. He says he is “persecuted” by the current government. “It's nonsense,” Lula replied.

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It's a statement, Carlos Bolsonaro reiterated that he had “no link with Abin” and that he never “requested or received information from third parties” from the agency..

What impact does it have?

The episode shakes the confidence of the Lula government in the current intelligence services.

Heads began to roll at Abin: On Tuesday, the agency's number two, Alessandro Moretti, the target of the police investigation, was fired, as well as four other senior leaders..

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The third on board the Abin, Paulo Mauricio Fortunato, had been dismissed shortly after being identified in the October police operation.

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On the political side, Suspicions of illegal espionage “discredit the practices of the Bolsonaro government for a large part of the population”political scientist Paulo Baia, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told AFP.

If this will translate into a weakening of the Bolsonaro camp, the municipal elections in October will provide some answers.

AFP