Former Brazilian traffic police chief arrested for trying to thwart Lula supporters in presidential election

Former Director General of the Federal Traffic Police (PRF) in the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro, Silvinei Vazquez, was arrested this Wednesday in Florianópolis, the capital of the state of Santa Catarina, on charges of trying to disrupt the arrival of voters from Lula. da Silva to the polls in the second round of last year’s presidential election. Vazquez was arrested by Federal Police agents as part of an operation that is also executing other arrest and search warrants against PRF agents.

On October 30, 2022, the day of the second round between Bolsonaro and Lula, Silvinei Vasquez, an alleged follower of Jair Bolsonaro, ordered more than 500 stop operations in the northeastern states of Brazil, traditionally favorable to then-candidate Lula da Silva. under the guise of checking the safety conditions of vehicles moving in the region on election day. But reports and multiple images show that PRF agents only stopped cars and buses with flags that alluded to Lulu, or passengers dressed in Workers’ Party red, who were extensively searched in an attempt to delay and even prevent these potential voters from arriving at their polling stations.

Silvinei Vasquez was a regular participant in the live broadcasts that Jair Bolsonaro hosted every week, during the election campaign he handed out booklets with the obligation of agents to read Bible texts, and on the eve of the presidential elections he announced his vote for the then president and a candidate for re-election. In another situation that received a lot of attention, shortly before Bolsonaro left the presidency, Vazquez demanded a reform that was passed in less than 48 hours, when the process usually takes up to a year, and without even fulfilling the conditions required by law.