Brazil halts preparation for U.S. state visit over spying revelations

The U.S. has been accused of spying on the Brazilian president.

Revelations about the U.S. National Security Agency’s alleged spying programme have placed Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff’s planned state visit to Washington on hold, a Brazilian newspaper reported on Thursday.

Rousseff is waiting for an apology from the U.S. government for the agency’s alleged spying, the newspaper, O Estado de Sao Paulo, reported.

Consequently, a delegation which had been due to fly on Saturday to Washington to manage logistics and protocol matters had been ordered to remain in Brazil, the newspaper said.

Rousseff is currently in St. Petersburg for the G20 summit, as well as U.S President Barack Obama, while her state visit to Washington is scheduled for October 23.

The alleged spying was revealed in secret documents leaked by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, to U.S. reporter Glenn Greenwald.

The reporter lives in Rio de Janeiro and writes for the British newspaper, The Guardian.

Brazilian television on Sunday had aired documents leaked by Snowden purporting to show that the NSA monitored Rousseff’s phone and e-mail communications with her advisers.

Earlier this week, Brazilian Justice Minister Luiz Cardozo stressed that the allegations were “extremely serious’’ and amounted to a violation of “national sovereignty’’.

(dpa/NAN)