Abin: Senate Commission unanimously approves director – 05/04/2023 – Power

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved this Thursday (4) the nomination of PF delegate Luiz Fernando Corrêa for the command of Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency). The name was unanimously approved by the committee, but will still be submitted to the Senate plenary next Tuesday (9).

The sabbatine of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) nominee for Abin was scheduled for March, but was canceled the day before by decision of senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), chairman of the Foreign Relations Commission.

Although the justification given by him was the trip of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, to the Senate at the same time, the reason behind the cancellation was the information about Corrêa having chosen alleged Bolsonarists to occupy the positions of numbers 2 and 3 in the agency .

More than a month later, Renan decided to schedule the sabbath after a request from the President of the Republic himself and the government signaling that there would be no retreat in the nominations of positions.

During the sabbath, Corrêa came out in defense of the federal delegate Alessandro Moretti, chosen deputy director, second in the structure of Abin; and Paulo Maurício Fortunato for Management and Planning Secretariat, the third position in the agency’s hierarchy.

“Enjoying the confidence of the president, I would never run the risk of exposing any government to the least embarrassing situation of nominating someone who does not have that status for the position we are nominating,” he told the commission.

About Moretti, he said that he considers him, “if not the most, one of the most prepared delegates for any function of public security and intelligence”. “Loyal, disciplined and State. Probably for being inflexible in that State position, it must have displeased some sectors. And those are in charge of eroding reputations”, he added.

Moretti was number two for Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice, at the Federal District Security Secretariat, between 2018 and 2021, and director of intelligence at the PF in the last year of the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Fortunato, a retired Abin employee, in turn, held leadership positions at Abin during the management of today’s federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ), head of the agency in the Bolsonaro government and a friend of the former president’s family.

Corrêa’s approval represents a defeat for the top of the PF, which has invested against the appointments of Moretti and Fortunato for the positions they held in previous governments.

The current director of the PF, Andrei Rodrigues, does not have a good relationship with Moretti because of the electoral campaign period and, after being appointed by Lula, barred the delegate from going abroad.

The attempt to avoid nominations had already arrived at the Planalto Palace in March, but the nominations were released after Corrêa pointed out that Moretti and Fortunato also held leading positions in the PF in the first Lula administrations and in the Dilma Rousseff (PT) administration and are from his extreme confidence.

Corrêa was director general of the PF in the second Lula administration. He took charge of the institution at the end of 2007, when the corporation was going through crises arising from the first major operations carried out in the first PT government.

During the sabbath, he highlighted two axes of action: improving processes, ensuring that they are traceable, and working together with the so-called CCAI, Intelligence Activity Control Commission. Corrêa stated that it is necessary to protect sensitive knowledge and counter-espionage activities.

The demonstration takes place amid the political use of Abin during the Bolsonaro government and the exchange of intelligence information through the WhatsApp messaging application, as shown by the Sheet last week.

Practically forgotten since it was created, the CCAI —made up of 6 federal deputies and 6 senators— gained the attention of Congress, as shown by the Sheetafter the January 8 attacks and the suspicions of espionage.

Corrêa stated that he still does not have the legitimacy to access information about the attack on the headquarters of the Powers, but he promised to clarify the doubts of the senators within the scope of the CCAI.

There were also questions about the role of Dint/Seopi (Intelligence Directorate of the Secretariat for Integrated Operations of the Ministry of Justice) and CIISP/DF (Integrated Intelligence Cell for Public Security of the Federal District) in intelligence activities.

As shown to Sheet, the two structures are cited by Abin in the report delivered to the CCAI on the January 8 attack. Corrêa stated that the Intelligence Cell was created for “big events” to receive “direct alert” from “field personnel”, in what he classified as a “more operational assessment”.

“[A Dint] in reality it has a dual role because it is the central body of the public security subsystem. Sisbin has Abin as its central body, and two axes: security and defense. The projection in the subsystem is the Ministry of Justice, which operates through this unit. [Dint] to dialogue, to interact in the field of public security,” he said.

“I’m sticking to the acronyms because the dates of the operation I wasn’t on active duty. Now, what they did or didn’t do, I’ll know from now on, if you approve my name here”, he added.