Brazil & Southern Cone - July 2013 (ISSN 1741-4431)

Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said in testimony to the federal senate on 10 July that Brazil might seek to interview the fugitive US whistleblower Edward J. Snowden as part of investigations into the latest allegations about US intelligence gathering operations in Brazil.

Patriota, along with his ministerial colleagues Celso Amorim (defence), Paulo Bernardo (communications) and José Elito (institutional security) were ‘invited’ by the senate to explain the allegations made by the daily O Globo to the effect that the US had collected data on “billions” of Brazilian telephone calls and emails.

Also ‘invited’ were the US ambassador Thomas Shannon, the Brazilian presidents of Google and Facebook, Fábio Coelho and Alexandre Hohagen respectively, and the Rio de Janeiro-based journalist for the UK’s Guardian newspaper Glenn Greenwald, who first broke the Snowden story and who collaborated with O Globo on the Latin American side of the scandal. Shannon, who under international diplomatic convention is under no obligation to appear before the Brazilian senate reportedly denied to Patriota in a private meeting the allegation that the US ran a central command station out of Brasília that collated information from some 16 international satellites around the world and said the US government would send a ‘technical team of specialists’ to Brasília to investigate.

Meanwhile, President Dilma Rousseff said that the government was awaiting the results of investigations by the federal police and Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel to determine what steps to take next. Rousseff had been clear that any involvement of other countries in Brazil was “a violation of sovereignty…just like it’s a violation of human rights”. She repeated that Brazil would raise the matter at UN forums including the International Telecommunications Union and the Commission on Human Rights. On 7 July, the day after O Globo ran its story, Patriota had expressed “deep concern” and said Brazil would ask the UN for a debate on the need for measures to “impede abuses and protect the privacy” of internet users, calling for new international rules for governments to “guarantee cybernetic security that protects the rights of citizens and preserves the sovereignty of all countries”.

The previous week, Rousseff and Patriota were quick to come out in strong defence of Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, who was temporarily prevented from flying across European airspace, apparently on suspicion that he was harbouring Snowden on his presidential jet. Patriota has been clear from the outset that there is no question of Brazil even entertaining Snowden’s request for asylum; it will happily leave that kind of politically provocative move to the likes of Venezuela (which now looks the most probable host country for Snowden), but now that the Snowden scandal has spread across the region, with key US allies like Mexico and Colombia also up in arms about it, Brazil’s strong stance on the matter looks rather prescient.

Brazil, which is always looking to assert its global leadership at the UN and other international forums on these kinds of ‘soft’ issues, may be able to gain some political capital out of this by upping the international pressure on the US for a response, but without overtly damaging the improving bilateral relationship, which has progressed since 2011 thanks to the efforts of President Rousseff. Having received President Barack Obama in March 2011, Rousseff is set to go on an official visit to Washington in October - the first by a Brazilian president in 20 years.

• Seeking Snowden

“Mr. Snowden’s participation in an investigation is absolutely relevant and pertinent,” Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota told the Brazilian senate. “I don’t rule out the hypothesis of seeking out contact with Mr. Snowden, something that doesn’t need to be carried out on Brazilian territory. It can be done another way.”