A former Brazilian police chief was arrested and deported to Brazil after using a fake Paraguayan passport to board a flight to Panama.
Published December 27, 2025
A former Brazilian police chief who fled the country after being convicted as an accomplice in a coup attempt by far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested in Paraguay, the country’s immigration authorities said.
Paraguay’s National Directorate of Migration (DNM) said in a statement on its website that Silvinay Vázquez was arrested on Friday at the Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion.
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The agency announced that Vasquez was arrested on suspicion of “identity theft” for “attempting to evade immigration control by impersonating a Paraguayan citizen.”
Vazquez was arrested as he attempted to board a flight to Panama, declaring El Salvador as his final destination, the DNM said in a statement.
DNM added that the wanted police chief had “secretly” entered Paraguay “escaping justice in his home country”.
An image posted to X by the Paraguayan Immigration Department showed Vazquez’s arrest and identification.
Another video clip posted on the same account shows Vázquez being handed over to Brazilian federal police at the Friendship Bridge border crossing between Ciudad del Este, Paraguay and Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
Translation: The Directorate General of National Migration (DNM) has deported Silvinay Basque. The DNM recently deported Silvinei Vazquez, 50, from the country and then handed him over to Brazilian Federal Police authorities at the Friendship Bridge border crossing.
Vázquez, a former head of Brazil’s highway police, is accused of deploying police to prevent voters in left-leaning areas from voting in the 2022 election, which Bolsonaro lost to left-wing candidate and current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
He was arrested in 2023 and placed under an electronic ankle monitor during his trial. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison under house arrest. He fled Brazil shortly thereafter.
Brazilian media reported that Vazquez broke his ankle monitor and drove across the border to Paraguay.
Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the fugitive’s preventive detention on Friday as a precautionary measure, Reuters reported, citing court documents and two people familiar with the matter.
Bask’s lawyer did not comment on his client’s escape attempt when contacted by Reuters.
Vázquez is not the first official to be convicted in connection with the 2023 coup attempt after attempting to flee Brazil. In November, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of former intelligence chief Alexander Ramadjem. Mr. Ramajem left the country in September and has since resided in the United States.
That same month, Judge Moraes also ordered Bolsonaro to be detained after the former president tried to use a soldering iron to remove a court-ordered ankle monitor, which the court deemed an attempt to evade justice.
Bolsonaro, 70, is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence after being convicted in September of leading a plot to prevent Lula from becoming president.
On Thursday, the former president underwent surgery at a hospital for a hernia.
