Australia closes embassy in Brazil as police raid over suspected threat to US facilities
Australia closed its embassy in Brasilia on Friday, joining the United States in suspending diplomatic operations two days before Brazil's presidential election, while Brazilian federal police raided sites in Sao Paulo and near the capital over a suspected threat to US facilities — and found no evidence of one.
Australia closed its embassy in Brasilia on Friday, joining the United States in suspending diplomatic operations in Brazil two days before the country’s presidential election on Sunday.
Australia’s ambassador to Brazil, Sophie Davies, said on social media that the Australian embassy in Brasilia would also be closed on Friday due to security concerns, citing the alert issued by the US and advising Australians to avoid US embassies and consulates in Brazil, Reuters reported.
The US suspended consular services at its embassy and consulates in Brazil on Friday over unspecified security concerns. The State Department did not elaborate on the security issues or link them to Sunday’s election, and did not say when services would resume.
Brazil’s federal police said on Friday afternoon they had carried out preventive search and seizure warrants in Sao Paulo and the Federal District, the administrative region surrounding the capital, as part of an investigation into suspected plans that could threaten US diplomatic facilities. Police said the operation followed cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies, but that investigators had found no evidence corroborating the initially reported threat and identified no suspects linked to criminal organisations.
Edinho Silva, president of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party, called the closures “unprecedented”, saying: “It makes no sense at all. It’s one of Trump’s ways of trying to influence Brazilian public opinion.”
Lula, who is seeking re-election, faces Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup. If neither candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the vote on Sunday, a runoff will be held on October 25.
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