Brazil was already furious at NSA surveillance operations against their country, with that subject dominated Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visit. The situation keeps getting worse as the NSA gets caught doing more and more spying on them.
Today, Brazil and Mexico both summoned their respective US Ambassadors to explain themselves after revelations that the NSA conducted spying against both nations’ presidents, repeatedly tracking their emails and telephone calls.
While officials have tried to stifle the opposition to the NSA by linking it to the war on terror, the surveillance schemes in South and Central American have focused on spying on the nations’ political leaders and industrial espionage.
Particularly with Brazil, the operations have no apparent national security interest whatsoever, and underscore that as the NSA has gotten bigger and bigger, spying is simply the default policy with anyone and everyone. It is only now that the severe consequences of such a policy are starting to be realized.