Canadian government declines to comment on Brazil spying allegations

Criado em 08/10/13 13h01 e atualizado em 08/10/13 13h06
Por Renata Giraldi Edição:s Fonte:Agência Brasil

Brasília – The Canadian diplomatic representation to Brazil reported that Canadian authorities are looking into recent disclosures that Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy's electronic and telephone communications have been spied on by Canadian intelligence. The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) was reported to have been spying on Brazil by Fantastico, a Sunday news broadcast on Globo TV.

The Canadian embassy issued a statement after a conversation on Monday (October 7) with Canadian ambassador Jamal Khokhar, in which Brazil's Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo expressed the government's “indignation” rating the alleged espionage as “grave and unacceptable”.

“We are discussing this issue between governments,” the four-paragraph statement read, without further details. “Canada has strengthened bilateral relations with Brazil based on active engagement of top government leaders, as well as bilateral, regional, and international matters, [resulting in] increased trade and investment and strong interpersonal connections.”

The Canadian government also emphasized that the country has “joint efforts” in place with Brazil in economy, social welfare, education, science and technology, and trade and investment. “Our foreign ministers met in Rio de Janeiro last August to discuss the Brazil-Canada strategic partnership dialogue,” the Embassy statement read.

On her Twitter, President Dilma Rousseff said that the latest disclosure confirms that the recently reported monitoring activities have “economic and strategic purposes”.

Editors: Carolina Pimentel / Nira Foster
Translator: Mayra Borges