career police officer and Bolsonaro ally

Born in Ivaiporã, in the interior of Paraná, in 1975, Silvinei Vasques built his professional career entirely linked to public security. He joined PRF in 1995 at a young age and enjoyed a career with the company for almost three decades.

Throughout this period, he held operational functions, administrative positions and regional command posts, notably in Santa Catarina and Rio de Janeiro, states where he consolidated his internal and political networks.

Described by his colleagues as an ambitious agent, with a centralizing profile and assertive speech, Vasques has degrees in economics, law and administration, has accumulated specializations in public security and organizational management and completed his studies with a master’s degree in administration abroad and a doctorate in law in Argentina. He also participated in courses on major police operations, particularly in the United States, which helped to strengthen his image as a technical manager prepared for senior positions.

Before arriving in Brasilia, Vasques had already moved between the police and local politics. He served as municipal secretary of public security of São José (SC) and member of the board of directors of a public company in Rio de Janeiro, on the recommendation of then-governor Wilson Witzel. Within the PRF, he was considered aligned with the right-wing camp and identified with Bolsonarism even before the arrival of Jair Bolsonaro at Planalto.

This political alignment became decisive in his rise. In 2021, Vasques was named director general of the PRF and quickly became one of the most identified with Bolsonarism in the field of public security. He began to adopt a political discourse, to defend government agendas and to maintain a direct relationship with the core of Planalto.

At the helm of the company, he also began to act as a political figure. Internally, his administration was marked by decisions concentrated at the top and by close relations with the allies of the president of the time, which reinforced his image as a man of confidence of Planalto.

However, visibility comes at a cost. In 2022, in the second round of the presidential elections, Vasques entered the radar of the Federal Police, suspected of having encouraged the use of the PRF structure for political purposes. Investigations indicate that inspections and blitzes intensified on highways in the Northeast, a region where Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had an electoral advantage, raising suspicions of attempted interference in the movement of voters.

With Bolsonaro’s defeat, Vasques lost his position and saw his legal situation deteriorate. In 2023, he was placed in preventive detention and remained detained for approximately a year.

Once free, he tried to reposition himself in Santa Catarina, where he maintained the political and personal networks built throughout his professional life. He even mentioned a candidacy for mayor of São José, but was considered a name used by the Bolsonarista camp itself, given the legal responsibilities. He then chose to support Mayor Orvino Coelho (PSD) and was appointed municipal secretary of Economic Development and Innovation in 2025. On December 16, after his conviction, he asked to be removed from office.