The former head of Brazil’s Highway Police, Silvinei Vasques, one of those convicted in the coup plot led by former President Jair Bolsonaro, was arrested this Friday while attempting to flee from a Paraguayan airport.
The Paraguayan National Police and the National Directorate of Migration confirmed Vasques’s arrest at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport. Vasques, sentenced to 24 years and 6 months in prison by the Supreme Court for his participation in the coup plot, was apprehended while attempting to travel to El Salvador.
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In a statement, the National Directorate of Migration explained that Vasques entered Paraguay “irregularly, evading justice in his country,” and intended to “circumvent immigration controls” to flee to El Salvador “by impersonating a Paraguayan citizen.”
His capture was made possible by an alert issued by Brazilian authorities to neighboring countries when the former police chief broke the electronic ankle monitor tracking his movements in the southern state of Santa Catarina, where he was under house arrest.
The conviction for coup plotting
Vasques was convicted by the Supreme Court on December 16, as part of the trial against the last five defendants accused of the coup attempt orchestrated by Bolsonaro, who is already serving a 27-year prison sentence.
The Supreme Court found Vasques guilty of orchestrating an operation during the second round of the 2022 elections to obstruct voters’ access to polling stations in traditionally left-leaning strongholds, thus favoring Bolsonaro, who was ultimately defeated by the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
In addition to Vasques, the high court convicted some 30 defendants in the coup plot, handing down sentences ranging from one to 27 years in prison.
The longest sentence was given to Bolsonaro, whom the court confirmed as the leader of the plot, which began even before the 2022 elections and culminated in the violent assault on the headquarters of the three branches of government on January 8, 2023, a week after President Lula’s inauguration.
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