Former Police Highway Federal director Silvinei Vasques was handed over to Brazilian federal police on Friday (26) after his arrest in Paraguay while attempting to flee to El Salvador with a fake passport. Convicted to 24 years and six months in prison for involvement in the 2022 coup plot, he cut off his electronic anklet and crossed the border in a rented car. Paraguayan authorities detained him at Asunción airport, where he presented a letter claiming brain cancer.
Silvinei Vasques, former PRF director during Jair Bolsonaro's government, was convicted on December 16, 2025, by the STF's First Panel to 24 years and six months in prison for being part of the coup plot's nucleus 2. The crimes included attempted coup d'état, drafting the 'coup minute', and actions to monitor authorities such as President Lula and Minister Alexandre de Moraes, as well as blocking roads to hinder Northeast voters in the 2022 election runoff.
He was under precautionary measures in São José (SC), wearing an electronic anklet and banned from leaving the country, awaiting appeals. On the night of December 24, Vasques left his apartment around 19:22 in a rented car, carrying bags, dog food, and hygiene mats for a pitbull. The anklet signal failed at 3 a.m. on December 25, alerting Santa Catarina's Penal Police and the PF, who checked the site at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., respectively, but he had already headed to Paraguay.
At Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asunción, Vasques was detained in the early hours of December 26 while trying to board a flight to El Salvador via Panama, using a fake Paraguayan passport in the name of Julio Eduardo Fernandez. Inconsistencies in the document led to biometric verification confirming his identity. He carried two passports and a 'Personal Declaration for Airport Authorities' in Spanish, claiming Glioblastoma Multiforme grade IV, a brain cancer preventing him from speaking or hearing, requesting written communication for radiosurgery treatment in San Salvador. The PF stated there is no medical verification.
Alerted in advance by the PF attaché in Paraguay, local authorities arrested him with support from the Migration Intelligence Network. Hooded and handcuffed, he was escorted to Ciudad del Este and handed over to the PF at the border with Foz do Iguaçu (PR) in the early evening. Minister Alexandre de Moraes ordered preventive arrest. Vasques will be transferred to Brasília, where he will await the final judgment of his conviction.
