After suspicion of illegal espionage, Lula fires Abin’s No. 2

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) fired, this Tuesday (30), the deputy director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin), Alessandro Moretti. For the position, he appointed Marco Aurélio Cepik, as published in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU).

Earlier, Lula said that he was unable to establish full trust in Abin, which has been the target of successive issues with the federal government. The crisis began with a possible lack of information regarding the acts of January 8, 2023 and the information that the alleged espionage scheme would have ramifications, such as people still linked to the former director general Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ). There is also suspicion that equipment had been taken by Ramagem and others under investigation.

“We are never safe. The companion I nominated to be the general director of Abin [Luiz Fernando Corrêa], is the partner who was my general director between 2007 and 2010. He is a person I have a lot of trust in and who put together his team. And within his team there is the citizen who is being accused who had a relationship with Ramagem, who is the former president of Abin in the last government, including a relationship that continued during his work at Abin”, he said in a radio interview CBN Recife.

The announcement of the release of “number 2” from Abin occurred even without the PF confirming his involvement in “interference in investigations”. Lula argued that “there was no climate” for him to continue in office.

The PT member also said that he would not be carried away “by the newspaper headline”. “You are killing people without giving people a chance to defend themselves. And I think everyone is innocent until proven guilty”, concluded the PT member.

Dismissed by Lula, Moretti is one of the targets of Operation Close Surveillance, launched by the Federal Police to investigate an alleged relationship that he still had with the possible scheme of spying on authorities.

Who is Marco Cepik, new director of Abin

Marco Aurélio Cepik, who will be Abin’s new “number 2”, was one of the authors of the proposals to the transition group that ended up shaping Abin’s current configuration.

Cepik is a professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, and author of the book “Espionage and democracy – Agility and transparency as dilemmas in the institutionalization of intelligence services”. He also suggested the demilitarization of the agency and subordination to the Civil House of the Presidency, as was done during the PT administration.