The director general of Brazil's Federal Police, Andres Rodriguez, announced that the department is investigating possible foreign interference by the United States following a report filed this week by the country's Attorney General's Office, Spanish news agency EFE reported.
The report has been forwarded to the Federal Police's Intelligence Directorate to “begin initial checks“, the police chief said.
“This is an ongoing investigation, a preliminary procedure. The results of the inspection have not yet been published, but the investigation is already underway,“ Rodriguez said.
He spoke to journalists during a visit to the Federal Traffic Police headquarters in the capital, where security forces are coordinating operations on election day.
The investigation was prompted by a request submitted on Thursday by the Attorney General's Office to the Federal Police, following the publication of an investigative piece in the British newspaper “The Guardian“.
According to the report, which received widespread coverage in the Brazilian press, the US State Department has redirected $1 million from the Endowment for Human Rights and Democracy to a project entitled “Countering censorship and the weaponization of the judicial system in Brazil“.
The US funds in question were used to finance networks and organizations in Brazil, aimed at interfering in the political debate, as well as destabilizing and undermining the institutional integrity of the Brazilian judicial system, the official document citing the journalistic investigation states.
Yesterday, Rodriguez also commented on the issue of the security of diplomatic missions after the temporary suspension of consular services at the US and Australian embassies on Friday due to security concerns.
“We have not found concrete evidence indicating a real risk to any embassy. The information collected yesterday does not point to anything specific or to the existence of any plan that we have detected“, he said.
On Friday, the Brazilian Federal Police carried out preventive searches in two locations, in São Paulo and in the metropolitan Federal District, announcing that the seized communication and computer equipment will be analyzed to determine the next steps.