‘Don’t worry about me’: Bolsonaro reassures followers after new Federal Police operation

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing several trials, and his allies were the target of a new operation by the Federal Police this Thursday in a trial in which he is accused of falsifying the administration of a Covid-19 vaccine in order to enter the country. The US in 2022 asked his followers not to worry about him. In a short video released after the new police action, between messianic phrases and slogans, Bolsonaro says that he is very happy and that he has chosen the path he is currently on.

“My people died because of ignorance (an obvious reference to Lula da Silva’s defeat in the 2022 presidential elections, when he tried and lost re-election). God, country, family and freedom. Do not worry about this. This was the path I chose and I am a very happy man,” the former ruler said in a message sent to a journalist who asked him how he had survived the tightening siege of justice and another police action against him and his allies, without, however, specifically answering any of the questions posed by the professional.

This Thursday, the Federal Police launched the second phase of Operation Venire against those allegedly involved in falsifying the vaccination report of Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, who refused to take the Covid-19 vaccine but had to show proof of this vaccination to be able to enter the United States, where he fled the day before the end of his term, fearing that he would be arrested when he lost presidential immunity the following day. The main targets of the action this Thursday were the current Minister of Transport of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Washington Reis, and the Municipal Secretary of Health of the city of Duque de Caxias, Célia Serrano.

At the time of the alleged falsification of the vaccination report, Washington Reis, a fanatical and folkloric follower of Jair Bolsonaro, was the mayor of Duque de Caxias, one of the most important cities in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. According to the Federal Police, it was Reis’s top aide, João Carlos de Souza Brecha, secretary of the municipal government, who fraudulently entered into the Ministry of Health’s system the information that Bolsonaro had taken two mandatory doses of the vaccine at that time, both at the Central Municipal Health Department of Duque de Caxias, the first on August 13, the second on October 14, days when the then head of state was very far from that city.

According to police sources, the operation this Thursday is aimed at obtaining new data that will complement the information already collected during the year and a half of investigations and will allow the process to be completed. In addition to this case of falsified vaccination data, sources in the federal police said that another investigation is nearing completion that could cause the former president serious headaches. him, namely gold and diamond jewelry, illegally exporting them to the United States and selling them there, keeping the money.