BRASILIA — Brazil is simply not buying the explanations coming out of Washington after recent reports that documents leaked by Edward Snowden showed that the U.S spied on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
Reuters cites an unnamed Brazilian government source as saying a Rousseff trip to Washington scheduled next month is at risk, along with certain trade partnerships, if the U.S. does not clarify or publicly apology for accusations that the National Security Agency (NSA) tracked emails, text messages and phone calls of Rousseff, as well as Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Brazilian Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo told Folha de S. Paulo that the justifications the U.S. gave to the Brazilian government about alleged espionage in the country “weren’t true.” According to the minister, Brazil is hoping to get “reasonable explanations,” especially as regards alleged interceptions of Rousseff’s conversations as cited by Globo TV that were circulated by former NSA contractor Snowden.
“Absolutely no reasonable explanations have been given by the U.S.. In fact, from the start all the explanations given to us have turned out to be false. After the embassy’s justifications and, later, our team’s visit to the U.S., further investigation showed they weren’t plausible.
“We are still waiting,” said Bernardo, who characterized the American behavior as “unjustifiable.” Still, he added that it was up to the Brazilian president and her diplomatic team to decide whether or not to go to Washington for October’s state visit.
Up to her
“I think demanding explanations from the American government is the appropriate action,” Bernardo says. “I believe that diplomacy is needed to solve this problem. This is embarrassing us — as well as other countries, such as Mexico, Germany, France.”
He thinks that there isn’t the “slightest possibility” that the U.S. are spying on Brazil to monitor possible terrorist attacks. “That’s industrial, commercial tracking to find out about pre-salt and other important commercial or economic matters. Thus, it’s worse than it seems at a first glance.”
Brazil’s Vice President Michel Temer has also criticized the U.S. behavior as “unacceptable,” but said that he believes that the matter will soon be “tactfully” settled.
As for whether Rousseff should postpone her trip to Washington, he stated, “The president can decide for herself. In my opinion, this will be taken care of diplomatically and in time for the president to visit the United States.”
