President Rousseff learned in Sept. 2013 that the U.S. government had spied on her, senior government officials, and Petrobras, Brazils national oil company. The revealation was one of many details about the National Security Agencys surveillance program that were uncovered by Edward Snowden and leaked to the media. Outraged, Rousseff demanded an apology from President Barack Obama. Dissatisfied with his response, she canceled a state visit to Washington scheduled for October.

However, two months later, Brazils government acknowledged that it had spied on countries such as the United States, Iran and Russia. The countrys top intelligence agency, the Institutional Security Cabinet, released a statement that it had spied on diplomats from other countries about a decade ago. The diplomats were under surveillance while they were in Brazil. The acknowledgement came after Brazil had repeatedly criticized the U.S. for its spying operations.