Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has formally supported the decision to revoke the credentials of a United States security agent operating in Brazil, following Washington’s expulsion of a Brazilian attaché.
In a video released on social media this Wednesday, President Lula congratulated the Director-General of the Federal Police (PF), Andrei Rodrigues, for what he described as a necessary measure of diplomatic reciprocity.
This escalation in diplomatic tensions stems from an incident on Monday, when the U.S. expelled the Brazilian security attaché, Marcelo Ivo de Carvalho, accusing him of manipulating the immigration system to facilitate the detention of Alexandre Ramagem, the former head of Brazil’s intelligence services.
The President addressed the controversy during an event celebrating the hiring of 1,000 new federal police agents, which was attended by both Andrei Rodrigues and the Minister of Justice, Wellington Lima e Silva.
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“Congratulations on your position regarding the American delegate, applying reciprocity. In other words, what they did to us, we will do to them, in the hope that they are willing to resume conversations and that things return to normal,” Lula declared.
Marcelo Ivo de Carvalho, who was based in Miami and served as a liaison with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was ordered to depart the country earlier this week. The U.S. State Department justified the expulsion by asserting that no foreign national should manipulate the U.S. immigration system to bypass formal extradition requests or extend political actions into American territory.
The broader conflict revolves around Alexandre Ramagem, 53, who was detained by ICE on April 13 in Orlando, Florida. At the time of the arrest, the Brazilian police characterized the detention as the result of successful cooperation with American authorities.
Ramagem is a fugitive from Brazilian justice, having been sentenced in September to 16 years in prison in the same legal proceedings as former President Jair Bolsonaro. Both men were found guilty by Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court of conspiring to keep the former leader in power despite his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula.
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According to Brazilian police reports, Ramagem fled the country in September by traveling through Guyana, bypassing immigration controls before entering the United States on a diplomatic passport. Brazil submitted a formal request for Ramagem’s extradition in December.
Following his recent detention in Florida, Ramagem was released after just two days. He publicly thanked the administration of Donald Trump for his release and maintained that he was in the country legally, claiming that his initial detention was merely an immigration issue and that his entry into the U.S. was “perfectly regular.”
