This past week, federal authorities raided the home of Rio City Councilman Carlos Bolsonaro, son of former fascist President Jair Bolsonaro. (Interestingly, the Bolsonaros happened to have left to go fishing at 5 am shortly before the raid occurred).
As part of the investigation, the Brazilian federal police have revealed that the Brazilian intelligence agency ABIN worked with Israeli intelligence to spy on the electronic communications of over 30,000 Brazilian political dissidents, setting up a “parallel” agency to spy on political dissidents.
It has now been revealed that this group was used to spy on the ex-Rio state prosecutor Simone Sibolio, who was charged with leading the investigation into the assassination of Rio City Councilwoman Marielle Franco.
Sibolio left the prosecution in 2021, citing “federal interference” as making it impossible to investigate the case.
The gunman, who killed Marielle Franco, happened to have breakfast with Bolsonaro on the morning of the assassination in 2018 when Bolsonaro. At the time, Bolsonaro was a controversial Rio City Councilman with close ties to the paramilitary gangs that Marielle Franco was investigating as a Rio City Councilwoman.
Many questions linger in Brazil as to why the Bolsonaros just happened to take off on an early morning fishing trip right before federal police raided their home. Some suggest that they may have taken the fishing trip to destroy files.