Report: NSA ‘spied’ on emails of Brazil and Mexico presidents

The United States National Security Agency spied on the communications of the presidents of Brazil and Mexico, the journalist behind the publication of the Edward Snowden leaks told Brazilian TV. 

Rio-based journalist Glenn Greenwald told the TV Globo program 'Fantastico' on Sunday that secret documents showed how US agents had spied on communications between aides of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.

Greenwald also said he had evidence that the US spied on Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto while he was still a candidate for office. 

'Fantastico' showed what it said was a June 2012 document showing that Nieto's emails were being read.

The report contained messages Nieto had written to aides discussing the names of people he was considering nominating as ministers once elected, reports the Guardian. 

The report did not include any specific messages intercepted from the Brazilian president but Greenwald told The Associated Press in an email that the NSA used a special program called the DNI Presenter to "open and read emails and online chats."

Greenwald was the first journalist to publish information from the former NSA contractor Snowden.

Since the initial release of information, Greenwald has written a number of articles about the documents.

He co-wrote articles in O Globo in July indicating that Brazil was a major target of the NSA's international surveillance.  

Brazilian Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo told the newspaper O Globo that "if the facts of the report are confirmed, they would be considered very serious and would constitute a clear violation of Brazil's sovereignty."

"This is completely outside the standard of confidence expected of a strategic partnership, as the US and Brazil have," he added.

Cardozo met with US Vice President Joseph Biden and other officials in Washington last week to discuss the previous allegations of the NSA spying on Brazil.

More from GlobalPost: NATO base attacked by suicide bombers in Afghanistan