Bolsonaro’s ‘Parallel Brazilian Intelligence Agency’ spied on justices, parliamentarians and journalists

Brasil de Fato

The Federal Police operation, launched on Thursday (11), arrested four suspected members of the criminal organization set up within the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin, in Portuguese) to illegally monitor justices of the Brazilian Supreme Court, journalists and political opponents of former president Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party). One person is still at large.

Brazil’s Federal Police also carried out search and seizure warrants as part of the investigation into the use of the First Mile intelligence system (developed by the Israeli company Cognyte) by police chiefs, officers, and civil servants for illegal purposes.

The people arrested on Thursday are Mateus Sposito, a former advisor to the Secretariat for Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic; Giancarlo Gomes Rodrigues, a military officer and former Abin employee; Marcelo de Araújo Bormevet, a federal police officer who worked at Abin; and Richards Dyer Pozzer. The latter and Rogério Beraldo de Almeida, who is still at large, are named in the investigation as responsible for spreading disinformation on social media using fake profiles.

The case’s rapporteur at the Supreme Court, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, ordered confidentiality to be lifted. This makes public a list of authorities from the three branches of government, including Moraes himself, among those who were illegally spied on during Bolsonaro’s administration. Justices Dias Toffoli, Luís Roberto Barroso and Luís Fux were also victims of the so-called “parallel Abin”.

In the legislative power, the focus was on the senators who made up the COVID-19 Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI, in Portuguese), which investigated the actions of the federal government under the management of Jair Bolsonaro during the pandemic, including senators Omar Aziz (Social Democratic Party), president of the commission; Renan Calheiros (Brazilian Democratic Movement), Alessandro Vieira (Brazilian Democratic Movement) and Randolfe Rodrigues (no party).

“The fact that the leaders of the COVID-19 Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry were monitored – including myself – fellow senators Renan Calheiros and Omar Aziz, only brings a tragic character to the scene: while Brazilians were dying, the previous government, instead of worrying about buying vaccines, was persecuting and monitoring its political opponents,” declared the leader of the government in the Chamber of Deputies, Randolfe Rodrigues.

The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (Social Democratic Party), released a statement repudiating the actions of the criminal group set up in Abin.

“Contaminating the Brazilian Intelligence Agency with partisan political actions and using the state apparatus to spy on and persecute legitimately elected parliamentarians is a criminal act that weakens not only the institution, but democracy and the country’s sovereignty,” he wrote.

On a social media platform, Senator Renan Calheiros (Brazilian Democratic Movement) said he laments and repudiates the fact “that state structures have been criminally captured to be used as political police” and said he remains “confident in the institutions, in the investigation, denunciation and prosecution of those guilty [of committing crimes].”

But not even the former president’s allies escaped illegal spying, such as the current speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (Progressive Party), and deputy Kim Kataguiri (Union Brazil). Former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia; Congresswoman Joice Hasselmann, and former Congressman Jean Wyllys (Socialism and Freedom Party) are also on the list.

On his X account, Wyllys said he now has the necessary elements to bring a lawsuit against those who persecuted him.

“The confirmation that the bozos [as Bolsonaro and his sons are dubbed by opponents] and their far-right military government were spying on me doesn’t surprise me. It does give me the elements to take legal action against them. I always suspected that I was being spied on and that they were planning something very bad against me,” he wrote.

Also targeted by the criminal organization were the former governor of São Paulo João Doria – a former ally of the Bolsonaro family –, as well as the employees of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama, in Portuguese) Hugo Ferreira Netto Loss and Roberto Cabral Borges; and the auditors of the Brazilian Federal Revenue Office Christiano José Paes Leme Botelho, Cleber Homen da Silva and José Pereira de Barros Neto.

In the case of the Brazilian Federal Revenue Office employees, the “parallel Abin” is said to have monitored the three auditors involved in the investigations into the alleged “rachadinha” – an embezzlement scheme to take part of public employees’ wages – in the office of Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party), when he was a state deputy in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro.

According to investigators, the monitoring was carried out by hacking into computers and smartphones using the First Mile tool, developed by an Israeli company and capable of monitoring these devices without leaving a trace.

Rio de Janeiro city councilor Carlos Bolsonaro, the former president’s second eldest son, who is suspected of being part of the scheme, reacted on social media and blamed the press for producing a “dirty narrative” without evidence. His brother, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party), attributed lifting the confidentiality of documents related to the case as an attempt to “damage Delegado Ramagem’s candidacy for mayor of Rio de Janeiro.” Alexandre Ramagem, currently a federal deputy, was the head of Abin when the facts pointed out by the Federal Police occurred.

Draft of the coup

Conversations between military officer Giancarlo Gomes Rodrigues and his chief, federal police officer Marcelo Araújo Bormevet, which is listed in the Federal Police report, suggest that the officers were aware of the moves to carry out a coup after Jair Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat in the 2022 elections.

At one point, Bormevet asks Giancarlo: “Has our imbroglio PR [abbreviation for president] signed the fucking decree?” And the military officer replies: “He hasn’t. That’s a shit to be waiting for it – if there’s ever going to happen anything.”

For the Federal Police, “the reference to democratic disruption made by the police officers is a relevant circumstance that indicates at least potential knowledge of the planning of the actions that culminated in the drafting of the intervention decree.”

According to the Federal Police, there is evidence that the crimes of criminal organization, invasion of someone else’s computer device, clandestine interception of communications and an attempt to abolish the democratic rule of law have been committed.

Brasil de Fato is trying to contact the defenses of those involved in the case. We are open to publishing their comments on the issue.