Former Brazilian intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem Rodrigues
Brazil Chamber of Deputies
Last December, Brazil’s former spy chief was spotted entering a luxury residence in on Laguna Circle in North Miami’s posh SoLé Mia development.
Alexandre Ramagem Rodrigues, 53, had fled to Miami some three months earlier to escape trial in Brazil, where the Supreme Court sentenced him on Sept. 11 to 16 years in prison for participating in a 2023 coup attempt.
Ramagem, who served as the Brazilian Intelligence Agency chief between 2019-22, was identified by Brazilian authorities as a member of the “crucial core” of the 2023 plot designed to keep Jair Bolsonaro in power. He has also been sentenced for using intelligence tools to illegally monitor opponents of the former Brazilian leader, ranging from politicians to artists and journalists.
Despite the Brazilian diplomatic passport he used to enter the U.S. being canceled in December, Ramagem remains in exile in Florida as authorities in Brasilia seek his extradition.
But it remains unclear if the Trump administration — which has defended Bolsonaro’s innocence and imposed sanctions on Alexander Moraes, the Supreme Court judge prosecuting Ramagem — will comply with the request.
Escape to Miami
Ramagem was first spotted in Miami in December by a Brazilian reporter who saw him and his wife entering Solé Mia, the massive 184-acre master-planned mini-city in North Miami.
According to the the Brazilian Federal Police, the former intelligence director is suspected to have left the country illegally in September 2025 with help from a local miner’s son in the northern area of Roraima, a Brazilian state that borders Guyana. The miner’s son ended up being arrested, and his cell phone and other materials were seized, according to police.
After a 13-hour car trip through Guyana, he boarded a plane to Miami in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital. He was able to clear U.S. immigration with his diplomatic passport, which hadn’t been canceled at the time.
He stayed for about three months at Solé Mia, but after the news article in Brazil exposed his lavish Miami residence, Ramagem quietly moved with his wife and two young daughters to a housing complex in Orlando. On Sundays, he and his family often attend mass at Attitude Baptist Church of Orlando, which holds services in Portuguese.
Ramagem did not respond to Herald efforts seeking comment.
Three questions
While Ramagem and his family build their new life in Florida, nearly 4,000 miles away Brazilian justice officials are seeking his extradition through a request formally ordered by a Supreme Court Justice in Brasília on Dec. 15.
Brazil’s Department of Asset Recovery and International Legal Cooperation confirmed that the request for Ramagem’s return has been forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice under the two countries’ extradition treaty.
Adam Hickey, a former deputy attorney general in the Justice Department, told the Miami Herald that that for an extradition request to move forward, three questions must be answered: whether the crime charged would also be a considered crime in the U.S, if it is a political offense and if there is a possible human-rights defense.
“If you’re seeking extradition, there has to be something called dual criminality, meaning the crime that the requesting state, in this case Brazil, wants to extradite you on has to also be a crime in the United States”, Hickey said.
Hickey, who dealt with extradition requests from the U.S., said the process can move quickly. It would first be evaluated by career line-level Justice employees, but the ultimate decision will go to senior political officials in the department.
Further provisions allow the CIA and other intelligence agencies to facilitate immigration status in the U.S. for sources that are providing classified information, and most extradition treaties have an exception for political offenses; that clause traditionally applies to things such as espionage charges.
“I think there’s a very good shot that in the context of this administration and given things that the president has said about [Bolsonaro]… our government might view those charges as political offenses,” Hickey said.
Bolsonaro in prison
Brazilian attorney Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, who is currently in charge of the defense of Peru’s former first lady Nadine Herédia, who received diplomatic asylum from Brazil after a money laundering conviction in Peru, believes that the request might be accepted due to the international agreements Brazil has with the U.S.
“Ramagem committed crimes against democracy, against institutions, against the rule of law, and is fleeing Brazilian jurisdiction”, de Carvalho said. “This is absolutely indisputable and unquestionable from every perspective. Brazil and the United States are signatories to international agreements, the circumstances of which have been clearly defined and are in place to ensure that extradition proceeds with absolute speed.”
While the Brazilian government continues to press the extradition process through its Washington embassy, Ramagem remains the only member of the 2023 coup plot to have successfully escaped the country. Former president Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence in a Brazilian prison.
The Herald attempted to contact Alexandre Ramagem Rodrigues but received no response as of the publication of this article.