President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) was charged by his Paraguayan counterpart Santiago Peña, on Thursday (4), on the country’s espionage operation by the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin). The case surfaced in March after agency servers confirmed the monitoring of government members.
Peña’s charge to Lula took place during a bilateral meeting they had in Buenos Aires hours before the Brazilian president received from Argentine leader Javier Milei the Mercosur rotary presidency.
“I expressed my concern about the case of espionage and requested the full commitment of the Brazilian authorities in clarifying the facts. Respect and dialogue are basic conditions to strengthen trust and advance together towards a shared future,” Peña said in a post on social networks.
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According to the complaint, the operation of ABIN targeted sensitive information about negotiations around the rates of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant, administered by Brazil and Paraguay. Agency servers reported to the Federal Police that an invasion program was used to access data from Paraguayan authorities, with authorization from the current director of the agency, Luiz Fernando Corrêa.
Corrêa was nominated by Lula to command the agency and was indicted by the Federal Police last month for trying to prevent investigations into the alleged illegal espionage scheme of authorities in the scheme that became known as “Parallel Abin.”
The Brazilian government reacted by stating that the espionage originated during the management of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). According to the Planalto Palace, the action was interrupted as soon as Lula was informed of the case at the end of March 2023.
“President Lula’s government categorically denies any involvement in intelligence action against Paraguay, a member of Mercosur with which Brazil maintains historical relations and a close partnership,” he said in a statement at the time.
Despite the diplomatic crisis, the meeting between the two presidents resulted in a mutual commitment to resume discussions about the revision of Itaipu’s Annex C, which defines the rules of surplus energy division produced by the hydroelectric dam.
Paraguay had decided to temporarily suspend negotiations until details about the spy operation were clarified.
