Bolsonaro ally convicted in coup plot is arrested in Paraguay

The former head of Brazil’s federal highway police under Jair Bolsonaro was arrested Friday in Paraguay while attempting to board a flight to El Salvador, after breaking the court-ordered electronic ankle monitor he was wearing, according to the Federal Police.

Silvinei Vasques was sentenced earlier this year by the Supreme Court to 24 years and six months in prison for his involvement in the Jan. 8, 2023, coup attempt led by Bolsonaro.

Prosecutors said that during the runoff round of the 2022 election, Vasques deployed federal highway police under his command to hinder voting by residents of northeastern Brazil, a region that overwhelmingly backed Bolsonaro’s opponent, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Vasques broke the electronic ankle monitor he was wearing in the Brazilian southern state of Santa Catarina, triggering alerts at border crossings.

He was arrested at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asuncion. The news was first reported by the G1 news site and later confirmed to Bloomberg by the Federal Police.

Vasques’s attorney, Eduardo Nostrani, said in a text message that he learned early Friday that the former federal highway police chief had been arrested the night before and that he has a Paraguayan lawyer working on the case.

Bolsonaro in September was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for his role in the coup attempt following his 2022 election defeat and was arrested in November after a judge deemed him a flight risk.

The former president admitted he used a welding torch on his own ankle monitor “out of curiosity.”

At that time, his defense denied that Bolsonaro had any designs on leaving Brazil when federal authorities accused him of contemplating a bid for political asylum in Argentina ahead of the trial.