PF and Abin under Lula played Bolsonarists who are now exonerated – 02/02/2024 – Power

The investigation into the existence of a parallel arapongagem body in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government removed from command positions in the Federal Police and Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) two delegates who were also in important positions in the previous administration.

On the 26th, Carlos Afonso Gonçalves Gomes Coelho was removed from the coordination of Operational Aviation of the PF by decision of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court). On Tuesday (30), it was Alessandro Moretti’s turn to be dismissed from Abin’s deputy directorship, by decision of Lula.

The story of the rise and fall of these two delegates partly illustrates the behind-the-scenes dispute between the PF and Abin leadership, which have been at odds since the government transition period.

At that time, the same group had the intention of controlling PF and Abin, but Lula took a different decision.

In the PF, he placed Andrei Rodrigues, a PF delegate who coordinated his security team in the 2022 campaign and who established a close relationship not only with Lula, but also with the first lady, Janja. The choice of president did not meet resistance from Flávio Dino (PSB), who would take over the Justice portfolio, to which the PF is subordinate.

At Abin Lula, he chose a former assistant, Luiz Fernando Corrêa, who had been general director of the PF in his second term. The president also removed the intelligence agency from the hands of the military (the Institutional Security Office) and allocated it under the umbrella of the Civil House, of minister Rui Costa.

For his team, Corrêa chose Alessandro Moretti and Paulo Maurício Fortunato as numbers 2 and 3, respectively.

These indications were used by the PF to try to wear down Abin’s leadership, behind the scenes, with the argument that Corrêa was taking people who played a relevant role under Bolsonaro’s orders into the Lula administration.

Moretti was Anderson Torres’ number two in the Security Secretariat of the Federal District, between 2018 and 2021, and commanded the PF’s intelligence directorate in 2022 when Torres was Minister of Justice and Public Security.

It was precisely in 2022 that Moretti’s relationship with Andrei began to shake. The then PF intelligence chief is named by the corporation’s current leadership as responsible for hindering the work of Lula’s security team during the election campaign.

Moretti would end up being appointed PF attaché in France, but Andrei blocked the appointment as soon as he took office.

Carlos Afonso Coelho headed Abin’s CIN (National Intelligence Center) — precisely the body suspected of harboring a nucleus of parallel activities in favor of the Bolsonaro family —, in addition to being Alexandre Ramagem’s number 2 in the agency.

Coelho was appointed PF Operational Aviation coordinator on October 11, in an order signed by the then executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Ricardo Cappelli.

The responsibility for the nomination, however, fell to Andrei. People close to him stated that Coelho was a trusted name for the general director of the PF, having worked with him at Sesge (Extraordinary Security Secretariat for Major Events).

This appointment is pointed out by Abin members as proof that criticism of Moretti’s “Bolsonaro past” was just a pretext in an attempt to expand spaces of power within the Lula government.

Moretti was exonerated after an operation came to light on the 25th in which the PF claims he acted to obstruct the investigations.

Most importantly, investigators cite his participation in a meeting with employees of the intelligence agency in March 2023 — shortly after the news surfaced that Abin had used the FirstMile software to spy on Bolsonaro’s political opponents —, when he he reportedly said that the case “had a political background” and would pass.

The PF’s first operation in this investigation, carried out last October, had already resulted in the removal of Fortunato, Abin’s number 3, in whose house US$171,000 were found.

Carlos Afonso Coelho was removed due to the operation on the 25th, when the PF’s claim came to light that he acted alongside Ramagem to avoid an internal investigation at Abin into irregularities in the use of FirstMile.

In the request made to Moraes to carry out this operation, PF delegate Daniel Carvalho Brasil Nascimento wrote that Coelho’s retention in office was intended to prevent him from being alerted about the investigations.

“Delegate Carlos Afonso, for example, currently occupies the role of Operational Aviation Coordinator at the Federal Police. This is an operational unit of great prestige and respectability within the institution. His ascension to a prominent position, however, took place without intervention of this counterintelligence coordination so as not to disrupt the ongoing investigations, since any refusal to assume the position would inevitably alert the delegate.”

The PF stated that Coelho’s appointment to the position was due to technical reasons, as he is an aircraft pilot and had previously worked in Operational Aviation coordination. There is no contact between this function and the investigation or intelligence area, says the agency.

FirstMile is the software acquired by Abin at the end of the Michel Temer administration (2016-2018) and which began to be used during the Bolsonaro government, having been in operation from 2019 to 2021.

He is the target of an investigation by the Federal Police on suspicion of having been used by the Bolsonaro administration to illegally spy on political opponents. The software provides the approximate location of people through signals sent by devices to cell phone antennas.

The Federal Police have already carried out three operations authorized by the STF, the first in October 2023 and the last two, on January 25th and 29th of this year. In the first two there was a search and seizure at Abin headquarters.

Among other points, the investigators claim that there was “collusion” between the current management of the intelligence agency and those being investigated.

The target of the last operation was councilor Carlos Bolsonaro (Republicans), son of Jair Bolsoanro, appointed by the PF as a member of the political core of the organization that used Abin for purposes unrelated to its institutional function.