Silvinei denies operation to block vote for Lula and says he was at a barbecue in SC on 8/1

Former Federal Highway Police director Silvinei Vasques denied in testimony before the Supreme Federal Court that he ordered operations on voting day in the 2022 runoff election to block the movement of voters for then-candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Vasques is a defendant in the Supreme Federal Court's attempted coup trial.

"I didn't do anything wrong. If I worked, it was to fulfill the orders of the Minister of Justice," he said.

He presented figures from the PRF's operations on election day to demonstrate that there was no political bias favoring then-President Jair Bolsonaro. According to Vasques, the number of operations was similar to other PRF operations. He said that in 2022, 324 buses were stopped in the Northeast. "We stopped 28,000 people. There's no way to interfere in a universe of 150 million," he declared.

This year, in January, according to Vasques, the PRF stopped 321 buses in the same region, a similar number to the year of the presidential election.

The former director also said that of the buses stopped by federal highway patrol officers, only 13 were towed on October 30, 2022. "They either had mechanical problems or were unfit to run. In all cases, other buses were called. There was one case in Pará where the patrol car even escorted the buses," Vasques said.

He also said he had nothing to do with the January 8 attacks and that he was in Santa Catarina on that date. "My birthday is on January 9th. I was at home having a barbecue with my friends," he said.

In his testimony, he stated that his tenure at the Federal Highway Police (PRF) was free of political interference. He also stated that during two administrations, no politicians were appointed to positions within the force: under Dilma Rousseff and under Bolsonaro.

"I wasn't involved in any organization. I went about my business. I don't know about any documents, I didn't participate in anything," he said regarding the attempted coup accusation.

Silvinei used his testimony to recount what he called abuse by police officers involved in the investigation of his case. He said that, despite being warned by a doctor that he needed immediate hospitalization on the day of his arrest, he was taken to detention.

"It was very cruel to take me to Brasília. I live five minutes from the Federal Police. They did this to me because there's a feud between the Federal Highway Police and the Federal Police. They were angry with me because I encouraged partnerships with the Public Prosecutor's Office because we seized weapons and drugs," he said.