Brazil revokes US official's credentials in latest diplomatic spat

Brazil revoked the credentials of an American police attache on Wednesday after a Brazilian official was forced to leave the United States -- the latest twist in troubled bilateral ties.

The Trump administration on Monday asked Marcelo Ivo, a liaison officer in Miami for Brazil's federal police, to leave the country.

According to US and Brazilian media reports, Ivo was involved in the US arrest of Brazil's fugitive ex-spy chief Alexandre Ramagem, a close ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Ramagem fled Brazil late last year after being sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of helping Bolsonaro attempt a coup to keep the leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power following the 2022 election. 

Ramagem was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on April 13 but released two days later.

The US State Department said on Monday it had asked an unnamed Brazilian official to leave the country for attempting to "game" the American immigration system, in an attempt to extend an unspecified "political witch hunt" to American soil.

US President Donald Trump used the same term last year to describe the Brazilian Supreme Court trial of Bolsonaro, his close ally.

The right-wing ex-president, Ramagem and other former officials were found guilty of attempting to carry out a coup following Bolsonaro's 2022 election loss.

Brazil's federal police chief Andrei Rodrigues told Globo News television on Wednesday that Ramagen's arrest had stemmed from bilateral cooperation on immigration.

"Regretfully today I withdrew the credentials of the US official working with the federal police...until we can clear up definitively what happened," he said.

Ivo's expulsion "fails to observe the good diplomatic practice of dialogue between friendly nations," Brazil's foreign ministry said in a statement confirming the tit-for-tat response to the United States.

Rodrigues said Ivo had done nothing wrong and it was "insane" to think he tried to fool the United States.

Rodrigues asserted that Ramagem had been arrested in Florida over a traffic infraction.

Supporters of Ramagem said it was Trump who had him released from detention.

Trump slapped tariffs on Brazil in retribution for the trial of Bolsonaro, who is now serving a 27 year prison term over the coup plot.

The levies were eventually partially eased as ties between Trump and the leftist Lula warmed.

Lula is seeking re-election in October and is running against Flavio Bolsonaro, a son of the ex-president.