MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mini-Watergate scandal involves Brazilian incumbent presidential campaign

Serra, this is “the man we want to know all about” alleges the ‘spy’

A mini Watergate Brazilian-style is emerging following statements from a former high ranking intelligence police officer who claims he was contracted by members of the incumbent presidential candidate team to spy on her main opponent.

“I was asked to spy on (leading opposition candidate) Jose Serra and was to be paid two million Real for the job”, said the retired police officer Onezimo das Grazas Souza whose expertise is in bugging phones and conversations.

“That is correct, they asked to spy because they wanted to know everything they could about Serra”, said the ‘spy’ in an interview with Folha de Sao Paulo.

The Workers Party presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff has not said a word about the incident but last weekend the head of press relations resigned to his job following on Grazas Souza first public statements.

Grazas Souza said that Rousseff campaign advisors contacted him and offered to pay the equivalent of 1.1 million US dollars to find out “everything possible about candidate Serra”.

Rousseff and Serra are involved in one of the tightest electoral campaign clashes, both of them with 37% of vote intention. The presidential election is scheduled for next October 3.

Former Sao Paulo governor Jose Serra who is running as candidate of the Brazilian Social Democracy party, PSDB, has openly accused Ms Rousseff of being responsible for the plot and demanded a public explanation about the whole incident.

This is an old tactic of the Workers Party, “dirty tricks” of which they are very fond claimed Serra in interviews with Sao Paulo newspapers. The news of the ‘spying plot’ was headlines in most of Brazil’s media.

According to Grazas Souza he was invited to a meeting at Rousseff’s headquarters to talk about the proposal.

The former police intelligence officer is known for belonging to the so called “information community” of Brasilia, a group of experts which specializes in bugging phones, offices and spy on public figures.

In 1972 the breaking in to the Watergate flats in Washington led to the chance discovery of a network of spying and other illegal activities which in August 1974 forced the resignation or former president Richard Nixon.