Senate approves Lula’s nominee for director general of Abin – 05/17/2023 – Power

The Senate approved this Wednesday (17) the nomination of Federal Police delegate Luiz Fernando Corrêa for the command of Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency). It was approved with 43 votes in favor, 5 against and 2 abstentions. The vote was secret.

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 (PT), 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 02 and 03 at the agency.

Corrêa was questioned by the commission on May 4 and unanimously approved. On the occasion, he came out in defense of the federal delegate Alessandro Moretti, chosen deputy director, number 2 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.

Moretti was number 2 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 Alexandre Ramagem, 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 invested against the appointments of Moretti and Fortunato for the positions they held in previous governments. The current director of the PF, Andrei Rodrigues, even barred Moretti from going abroad.