The former head of highway police is detained by Brazil’s highest court following an escape attempt
Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued an order on Friday for the preventive detention of the former head of the country’s federal highway police, who was apprehended in Paraguay, as indicated by a court document reviewed by Reuters and information from two sources familiar with the situation.
Silvinei Vasques, a former official under President Jair Bolsonaro, was apprehended while attempting to board a flight at Asuncion airport in Paraguay, aiming to travel to El Salvador after violating a court-ordered ankle monitor.
Vasques has recently received a sentence of 24 years and six months in prison for his involvement in a 2023 attempted coup, the same event for which Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year sentence for orchestrating the scheme.
A former police officer, who had not yet been incarcerated, reportedly damaged his electronic ankle monitor while in Brazil’s southern state of Santa Catarina, leading to security alerts at border checkpoints, as stated in the Supreme Court document.
Vasques, discovered with a counterfeit Paraguayan passport, orchestrated the escape utilizing a rented vehicle and even brought his dog along, according to the document, which noted that the flight attempt justified changing precautionary measures such as the electronic tag to preventive detention.
When contacted by Reuters, Vasques’ attorney refrained from commenting on his client’s attempt to escape.
Vasques is not the first officially convicted individual related to the 2023 coup attempt who has attempted to escape Brazil. In November, the Supreme Court issued an order for the arrest of former intelligence agency director Alexandre Ramagem, who departed the country in September and has been residing in the United States since then.
In that same month, Moraes issued an order for Bolsonaro’s detention after the former president attempted to remove his court-mandated ankle monitor with a soldering iron. At that time, Bolsonaro was placed under house arrest.
