Ramagem refutes accusations of having integrated 'Abin parallel' and blames former director

Former director general of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) in the government of Jair Bolsonaro, Alexandre Ramagem said, in a video published on Instagram on Saturday, 3, that he never ordered any monitoring of authorities using the First Mile system while he headed the agency.

First Mile is spy equipment that invades telephone operators' networks to determine the approximate location of a cell phone – and, by extension, its owner. In January this year, the Federal Police (PF) executed a search and seizure warrant at addresses in Ramagem, on suspicion of illegal use of Abin in monitoring political opponents of the Bolsonaro family.

In the Instagram post, Ramagem says that he never ordered any monitoring using First Mile nor did he order the system usage logs to be deleted.

He also claims to have ordered a general review of Abin's processes and tools at the beginning of his management, followed by a specific investigation into the use of First Mile by the agency's Operations Department.

Ramagem also says, without naming him by name, that the person who controlled the use of First Mile at the time was the agency's former Secretary of Planning and Management, Paulo Maurício Fortunato Pinto.

He was dismissed from his position in October last year, after the PF seized US$171,800 in cash from his home.

“So, during the Lula administration, who returned to Abin’s top management? The person, the intelligence officer (Paulo Maurício Fortunato Pinto), who I had dismissed. He returned in a superior position. In the position of Secretary of Planning and Management. The function I had asked for, which does all the investigations”, he says.

“Based on news of Federal Police operations, he is the one suspected of erasing logs (records). According to the news, when they carried out a search warrant at his house, it was there that they found 170 thousand dollars (USD), almost R$1 million. So, here you are checking who the parallel Abin is”, says Ramagem.

The report from the Estadão he was unable to contact Fortunato Pinto.

On Friday, the 3rd, a list of authorities that had been illegally monitored by Abin was made public. The list includes ministers of the Federal Supreme Court, such as Luís Roberto Barroso, Gilmar Mendes and Alexandre de Moraes; former ministers of the Bolsonaro government, such as Abraham Weintraub (Education) and Anderson Torres (Justice and Public Security); and congressmen, such as deputy Kim Kataguiri (União-SP) and senators Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL) and Randolfe Rodrigues (No party-AP), among several others. The PF does not confirm the relationship.

“The First Mile system is a system that does not perform interception. It is a system that does not enter into conversations, it is a system that performs crude geolocation, just as States did at the time of the pandemic to check where people were. Several institutions have and use tools like First Mile and others”, says Ramagem in the video. “Now, if this use is not well discriminated, the reason for use is not individualized, if there is no basis in the public interest, the use is irregular. It’s illegal,” he says.

After ordering a general review of Abin's processes – a body that operated in an “analogical” way, according to him – Ramagem says he requested a specific investigation into the use of First Mile. Paulo Maurício Fortunato Pinto, at the time heading the department that used the system, reportedly refused to provide detailed information.

“We fired the director of operations due to (the use of) First Mile. Soon after, not even a week later, on August 30, 2021, I prepared a letter to Abin's internal affairs department, to verify compliance with First Mile's hiring, exclusively. (…) taking into account the greater sensitivity of your object compared to all the others”, he says.

Shortly afterwards, says Ramagem, a Disciplinary Administrative Process (PAD) reached him which included evidence of misuse of First Mile. The PAD is the internal investigation of a public body to investigate irregularities, and can even result in the dismissal of an employee, among other consequences. “In this PAD, there was mention of irregularity by First Mile. So, in addition to the general audit that culminated in my request for First Mile's own investigation, I also, in a PAD, having received news, asked to open 3 other investigative investigations, this in September 2021”, says Ramagem.

Now a federal deputy for the Rio de Janeiro PL, Ramagem is expected to give a statement to the PF about the “parallel Abin” on February 27th. The investigation into the misuse of the agency during Jair Bolsonaro's government (2019-2022) is conducted through an inquiry at the Federal Supreme Court, reported by Minister Alexandre de Moraes.

In the video, Ramagem also says that the Federal Police have no evidence of his involvement in the irregular use of First Mile.

“I ask the Federal Police. Is there any news that I asked or did, I deleted logs (records) from the system? No, there is not. It does not have. The system was not purchased by me, and I did all the system audits”, he says.