Andrei receives Mendonça's order removing him as Federal Police chief and officer

Federal Police chief Andrei Passos Rodrigues signed a summons at 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday informing him that Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça had removed him from the agency's command and from his post as a police officer.

Federal Justice officer Doralúcia das Neves Santos delivered the document at Federal Police headquarters in Brasília. Rodrigues signed in the lower-right corner of the warrant. The decision also removed the agency's intelligence director, Leandro Almada da Costa.

The ruling caught the Federal Police leadership off guard and caused confusion at a ceremony held by the agency that morning. Rodrigues had confirmed that he would attend the opening of a training course for Federal Police agents, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. He was already on his way to the National Federal Police Academy when he learned of Mendonça's decision, issued shortly before the ceremony began.

Rodrigues appointed the agency's No. 2 official, executive director William Murad, to replace him at the event. Murad defended the work of the Federal Police and said Rodrigues had the team's full confidence. "We will not let ourselves be shaken by attacks, wherever they come from, and here we reaffirm, and I reaffirm, our full confidence in the Federal Police leadership and in Federal Police chief Andrei Rodrigues. The moment calls for calm, but we will know how to weather this storm, as we have done so many times," Murad said.

The Federal Police and the Ministry of Justice had not yet commented on Mendonça's decision.

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We will not let ourselves be shaken by attacks, wherever they come from, and here we reaffirm, and I reaffirm, our full confidence in the Federal Police leadership and in Federal Police chief Andrei Rodrigues. The moment calls for calm, but we will know how to weather this storm, as we have done so many times.