The former director general of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), Silvinei Vasques, was transferred to Brasília this Saturday 27, after spending the night at the headquarters of the Federal Police in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná. Vasques was arrested this Friday the 26th in Paraguay while trying to board a flight to El Salvador with false documents.
The attempted escape from Brazil, after being sentenced by the STF to more than 24 years in prison for attempted coup d’état, is still surrounded by doubts: from the preparations to the act at the Silvio Pettirossi International Airport, in Asunción.
The Minister of the Federal Court, Alexandre de Moraes, requested the preventive arrest of the former director of the PRF, based on a federal police report which detailed certain points of Vasques’ escape plan. He is detained in Brasilia.
Find out what we know about the episode and what remains to be clarified:
Preparations
The former PRF director had worn an electronic ankle bracelet since August 2024, when he was released from another preventive detention order. On the 16th of this month, Silvinei Vasques was convicted by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for ordering illegal blitzes during the 2022 elections with the aim of disrupting the flow of voters in the Northeast who could vote for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
According to PF’s report, the former PRF director left his residence on the night of Christmas Eve, Wednesday 24, before the ankle bracelet stopped working.
The latest information from the ex-PRF indicates that he left the condominium where he lives, in São José, Santa Catarina, around 7:22 p.m. that day. Minutes earlier, Silvinei had loaded a rented vehicle with bags, food and pet sanitary mats. He is staying with a pitbull dog. After that, according to the PF, the former director of the PRF was no longer seen.
However, the PF does not specify how Silvinei rented a silver Volkswagen Polo from a car rental company, nor how the vehicle ended up in the parking lot of the former PRF building. At Vasques, only a white Jeep Renegade was registered. There are also doubts about the payment of the rental of the vehicle used by Vasques to flee from Santa Catarina to Paraguay.
Silvinei left the scene wearing black sweatpants, a gray Puma t-shirt and a black cap. There is also no information on how the former PRF’s clothes were changed, since at the time of his arrest Silvinei Vasques was wearing a green shirt.
ankle bracelet problems
After the escape, the officers went to Silvinei’s building, after the ankle bracelet signal presented the first problems. The PF informed Moraes that the electronic equipment used by Silvinei ran out of GPS signal around 3 a.m. on Thursday 25 and around 1 p.m. of the same day the device ran out of GRPS signal, indicating that he could have discharged it.
It remains to be clarified how Silvinei Vasques broke the ankle bracelet and where he left the equipment, as the PF himself reports to the Supreme Court: “It is still not possible to specify the reasons for the violation of the electronic ankle bracelet and it is also not possible to say whether the equipment was left in Silvinei Vasques’ apartment.”
Fake passport
Silvinei Vasques was arrested in Paraguay while trying to board a flight to El Salvador with false documents. He used the identity of Julio Eduardo. When comparing photos, numbers and fingerprints, it was confirmed that Silvinei was not the same person presented in the document.
During the approach, Silvinei ended up admitting that the documents were not his. Silvinei was expelled from Paraguay and taken to Brazil for failing to declare his entry into the country in accordance with immigration law.
On the Paraguayan side, the Paraguayan Public Prosecutor’s Office will investigate whether the documents used by Silvinei were lost or stolen.
On the Brazilian side, it remains to be seen who Julio Eduardo is, who is the man who appears in the identity photo, how Silvinei Vasques acquired the document and paid for this issue.
There are also doubts about the manner in which the statement presented by Silvinei Vasques to the Paraguayan police was produced, in which he stated that he was suffering from head cancer and could not speak.
Disappearance of the dog
As reported by the PF, the latest images of the former PRF indicate that he left the condominium where he lives, in São José (SC), around 7:22 p.m. on the 24th. A few minutes before, Silvinei had loaded a rented vehicle with pet items and boarded a pitbull dog.
It is still unclear whether the dog was also taken by Silvinei to the airport in Paraguay. And if he didn’t take it, where and with whom did he leave the animal.
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