STF Keeps Silvinei Vasques in Preventive Custody After Paraguay Capture

Overview

• Paraguayan police detained the former PRF chief at Asunción’s airport as he tried to fly to El Salvador using Paraguayan documents that did not match his identity after he cut off his ankle monitor and left Santa Catarina.
• Paraguay expelled him to Brazil, and he was flown to Brasília to be held in the Papuda complex after passing a custody hearing in which the Supreme Court maintained his preventive detention ordered by Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
• Federal Police reports cite loss of GPS signal from the monitor, security footage of Vasques loading bags into a rental car on Christmas Eve, and the use of a letter claiming illness alongside the false documents.
• In the wake of the episode, the Federal Police executed ten home-detention orders with electronic monitoring across multiple states, including for former presidential adviser Filipe Martins, with added bans on social media, contact with co-defendants, and gun permits.
• Vasques was convicted by the Supreme Court to 24 years and six months for directing PRF operations in 2022 that prosecutors say sought to hinder voter access in Lula-leaning areas of the Northeast.