Brazil has summoned the US ambassador and urged a cabinet meeting over a report that National Security Agency (NSA) has spied on the president of the Latin American country.
On Monday, a Brazilian Foreign Ministry spokesman said US Ambassador Thomas Shannon “was called to explain” the new allegations.
The report, which was based on leaked documents by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, was presented on Sunday by journalist Glenn Greenwald on the Brazilian television program Fantastico.
According to Greenwald, one of the leaked documents reveals that the emails of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff have been intercepted with the help of DNI Presenter, which is a program used by the NSA to open and read online communications.
In reply to the recent revelations, Rousseff called a cabinet meeting that will include her ministers of defense, foreign affairs and justice.
“We are in an emergency situation due to these spying allegations,” O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted Gilberto Carvalho, Rousseffâ„¢s chief of staff, as saying.
Brazilian Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo responded to the report, saying Å“if the facts of the report are confirmed, they would be considered very serious and would constitute a clear violation of Brazilâ„¢s sovereignty.”
The document shows that the NSA monitored the emails of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto as well. The document was dated June 2012, a month before Nieto was elected as president and indicated who he would like to name to some government posts.
In another report In July, Greenwald cited documents that showed the NSA had collected data on billions of Brazilian emails and telephone calls, which made Brazil the largest target in Latin America.
On August 29, during an official visit to the United States, the Brazilian justice minister criticized Washington for spying on Brazilian companies and individuals, saying the surveillance violated the countryâ„¢s sovereignty.
IA/AB/MHB
Republished from: Press TV