U.S. expels Brazilian official after arrest of Bolsonaro's former intelligence chief

Washington .- The United States government expelled Brazil's security attaché on Monday after accusing him of "manipulating" the immigration system for the capture of the former intelligence chief of former President Jair Bolsonaro last week. 

Ivo De Carvalho, who acts as a liaison with U.S. immigration authorities, has been based in Miami and has received an immigration request to leave the country, according to the State Department's Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs. «No foreigner can manipulate our immigration system to evade formal extradition requests and extend political witch hunts to US territory», declared the authority on its official X account, adding that «the Brazilian official in question» was asked to leave.

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The measure came after Bolsonaro's former intelligence chief, Alexandre Ramagem, who fled Brazil in September accused of planning a coup, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and later released. Specifically, De Carvalho was listed as the coordinator of relations between the Brazilian representation on US soil and ICE.

The arrest of Ramagem

On April 13, Ramagem was arrested in Florida, where he was after fleeing his country last September, when he received a sentence of 16 years in prison for his participation in the coup plot that, according to the Supreme Court, was led by the far-right Bolsonaro after losing the 2022 elections. Local media and allies of the former deputy said that the detention was due to merely migratory issues. According to the Prosecution, Ramagem, who directed the Brazilian Intelligence Agency during the Bolsonaro Administration (2019-2022), set up a parallel secret service to monitor political opponents. Last September, in the days when the trial for the attempted coup in Brazil was concluding, he fled clandestinely from the state of Roraima, bordering Venezuela, entered Guyana by land and headed for the United States, according to the local press.