The Bolsonaro clan was directly targeted this week, via searches on Monday at the home of one of the sons of the former head of state (2019-2022), who criticizes a “persecution” carried out according to him under the aegis of his successor, left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
How did the scandal break out?
A first police operation launched in October resulted in the arrest of two officials from the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) suspected of having illegally used Israeli spyware FirstMile. Acquired by the Brazilian government at the end of 2018, shortly before Jair Bolsonaro came to power, this software allows the geolocation of individuals through the signal emitted by their mobile phones. On January 25, another operation targeted Alexandre Ramagem, former head of Abin and confidant of the ex-president.
The judicial act which authorized the searches targeting Mr. Ramagem refers to a “criminal group” which would have created a “parallel structure” within the Abin, to “illegally monitor people and public authorities”.
On Monday, the Bolsonaro family was affected in turn, with searches of Carlos, the second of the siblings. This Rio de Janeiro municipal councilor is designated by investigators as a member of a “political core”, which would also have illegally requested information from Abin on ongoing investigations targeting Jair Bolsonaro and his entourage. In other investigations, Carlos Bolsonaro is suspected of having coordinated under the presidency of his father a “cabinet of hatred”, a “digital militia” responsible for denigrating opponents on social networks, and disseminating false information.
In 2020, Gustavo Bebianno, Mr. Bolsonaro’s former minister, claimed in a broadcast that the president’s second son had suggested the creation of a “parallel Abin”. Mr. Bebianno died of a heart attack shortly after.
Who were the people spied on?
According to the Brazilian press, the police suspect that hundreds of political figures, magistrates, lawyers and journalists have been illegally spied on.
Among them would be Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, condemned by the Bolsonaros for having ordered several investigations against the ex-president and his relatives.
He was also head of the Superior Electoral Tribunal when this high court declared Jair Bolsonaro ineligible last June, for having disseminated false information on electronic ballot boxes.
It was he who signed the judicial orders authorizing the searches at Alexandre Ramagem and Carlos Bolsonaro.
“The evidence collected so far indicates that the criminal organization infiltrated in Abin used illegal methods to carry out clandestine acts against people described as opponents,” one of these documents states.
Another Supreme Court judge, Gilmar Mendes, was also allegedly spied on, as was a former president of the Chamber of Deputies and a governor who became Lula’s minister.
What does the Bolsonaro camp say?
“They want my head,” the former president said Thursday. During an interview with CNN Brazil on Monday, Jair Bolsonaro declared that he had “never received the slightest information on the location of anyone” from the Abin. He calls himself a “victim of persecution” – “nonsense,” Lula replied.
In a press release released by his lawyers, Carlos Bolsonaro “reiterates that he had no link with Abin” and that he had never “solicited or received third-party information” from the agency .
What impact?
For Lula, the challenge is serious: it is that of the trust he can have in the intelligence services. Heads began to roll: on Tuesday, Abin’s number 2, Alessandro Moretti, targeted by the investigation, as well as four other officials, were dismissed. The agency’s number 3, Paulo Mauricio Fortunato, had already been ousted after being targeted by the police operation in October.
Furthermore, suspicions of illegal espionage “discredit the practices of the Bolsonaro government”, believes political scientist Paulo Baia, of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, interviewed by AFP. However, will the scandal weaken the former president’s camp? The municipal elections in October will provide some answers.