Brazil's top court orders detention of ex- head of highway police

Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the preventive detention of the former head of the country's federal highway police, who was captured in Paraguay.



Silvinei Vasques, who served under former President ⁠Jair Bolsonaro, was caught while trying to board a plane at Asuncion airport in neighboring Paraguay, in an attempt to reach El Salvador, after breaking a court-ordered ankle monitor.



Vasques was recently sentenced to 24 years and six months in prison for his ⁠role in a 2023 attempted coup, the same incident for which Bolsonaro is now serving a 27-year sentence for orchestrating the plot.



The former cop, who was not yet in jail, apparently broke his electronic ankle monitor while in Brazil's southern state of Santa Catarina, prompting security alerts at border checkpoints.



Vasques, caught with a fake Paraguayan passport, planned the escape using a rented car and even took his dog with him, adding that the attempt to flee warranted converting precautionary measures ⁠like the electronic tag into preventive detention.



Vasques is not the first official convicted over the 2023 coup attempt who has tried to flee Brazil.