By Ricardo Brito
BRASILIA, April 22 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Federal Police revoked the credentials allowing a Brasilia-based U.S. immigration officer to exercise his official duties, the police head and the foreign ministry said on Wednesday, citing a similar move made by the U.S. government.
Washington said on Monday it had asked Brazilian security attache Marcelo Ivo de Carvalho, who acted as a liaison with U.S. immigration enforcement and was based in Miami, to leave the country.
Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues said in an interview with GloboNews that the attache returned to Brazil at his request, but was told that his working credentials were revoked, which prompted Brazil’s reaction.
“I have revoked the (U.S. officer’s) credentials with great regret. I wish none of this was happening,” the federal police chief said, adding that Brazil does not aim to expel any U.S. official.
Rodrigues said the police wanted to understand the process by which De Carvalho had his credentials revoked, as it did not receive any formal notice from U.S. authorities.
Brazil’s foreign ministry said in a statement published later that it had summoned a representative from the U.S. embassy in Brasilia to inform them about the decision to “immediately interrupt” the U.S. official’s duties in the country.
Neither Rodrigues nor the foreign ministry named the U.S. official who had his credentials revoked. The foreign ministry did say that “reciprocity terms” involved an official from a “corresponding area” to that of De Carvalho.
The U.S. embassy in Brasilia did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The standoff came after U.S. immigration agency ICE briefly detained former Brazilian lawmaker Alexandre Ramagem, who fled Brazil in September following his conviction for plotting a coup with ex-President Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday that his government could reciprocate any perceived abuses by U.S. authorities in the case involving the Brazilian attache.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Additional reporting and writing by Fernando Cardoso; Editing by Sarah Morland, Matthew Lewis and Bill Berkrot)
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