April 21 (Reuters) - Brazil’s government could reciprocate after the expulsion of a Brazilian federal police attache from the United States, the South American country’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday.
The U.S. embassy in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, was not immediately available to comment.
Speaking to reporters in Hannover, Germany, Lula said he did not know what had happened but that Brazil would reciprocate if there was an abuse by U.S. authorities in the case involving the Brazilian official.
“We cannot accept this interference and abuse of authority that some Americans want to exert over Brazil,” he said.
The U.S. government on Monday announced in a post on X that it would expel a Brazilian official allegedly involved in the arrest of former Brazilian federal lawmaker Alexandre Ramagem by U.S. immigration police last week.
Although the post did not name the official, the U.S. embassy in Brasilia confirmed to Reuters that the authority referred to was Marcelo Ivo de Carvalho, the Brazilian federal police attache in Miami and the Brazilian government’s liaison officer with U.S. immigration agency ICE.
Ramagem was freed after a brief detention. He fled Brazil in September following his conviction for plotting a coup with Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro.
(Reporting by Michael Susin and Oliver Griffin; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Alison Williams)
