Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff nixed her state visit to Washington in October because she is incensed the U.S. spied on her personal communications as part of the National Security Agency surveillance program, newswires reported on Tuesday.
President Obama had hoped to change her counterpart's mind by calling her on Monday night, but to no avail. While the White House and the Brazilian president's office said the postponement was mutually agreed upon together, a visit was not likely to be rescheduled in the foreseeable future, aides said.
"Illegal surveillance practices intercepting the communication and data of citizens, companies and members of the Brazilian government constitute a serious affront to national sovereignty and individual rights, and are incompatible with democratic cooperation between friendly nations," the Brazilian government said in a statement. In the absence of explanations and a "commitment to cease such surveillance activities, the conditions are not in place for the visit to go ahead as previously scheduled," it added.
U.S. officials had argued the surveillance was merely to track suspect terrorist activity and to not pry into personal communications by Rousseff or by her personnel.
The U.S. and Brazil are huge economies, and the trip had hoped to discuss oil exploration and biofuels technology, news reports said. Brazil's potential purchase of fighter jets from Boeing Co. was compromised in that the South American country would not feel comfortable buying from a country, which had been spying on them.
