Brazil says US explanations on espionage are false

Brasília – Paulo Bernardo, Brazil's Minister of Communications, said on Tuesday (September 3) that the United States' answer to Brazil regarding the recent reports of espionage – including on President Dilma Rousseff and her advisers – are implausible. “All explanations provided sever since this whole episode began proved false – both those produced by the US embassy and those that our people received in their visit to the United States,” the minister said.

In Bernardo's view, the report of espionage is “an embarrassing situation they [the US] are inflicting on us and other countries like Mexico, Germany, and France.” He went on to say that Brazil's government is not so “naive” as to think that the US would monitor Brazil's data because they anticipate “somebody is plotting an attack”.

“That's plain business and industrial espionage; the US are interested in finding out about the pre-salt and other issues of economic and business relevance – which means the situation is more serious than originally thought,” he said.

According to the minister, the situation can be tackled diplomatically. “What the [Brazilian] government did – demand explanations – was appropriate. Our countries are friendly with each other, they have maintained diplomatic relations for 200 years. Diplomacy is the way to go.”

Editors: Carolina Pimentel / Nira Foster
Translator: Mayra Borges