SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The former head of Brazil’s Federal Highway Police, Silvinei Vasques, was arrested on Wednesday in a police operation to investigate interference in the 2022 presidential election run-off, a source linked to the police operation told Reuters.
In the October vote, highway police carried out operations and roadblocks in northeastern Brazil that delayed the arrival of some voters to polling stations. Critics alleged vote suppression that could have benefited then President Jair Bolsonaro.
“It was very clear there was no reason or motive” for the roadblocks, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous as he was not authorised to speak to the media on the matter.
The Federal Police said it launched the operation on Wednesday to investigate the use of state resources to interfere in the second-round vote.
“Federal Highway Police directed human and material resources to hinder the transit of voters,” a police statement said.
It noted that there had been increased patrolling in the northeast of Brazil, which is a bastion of support for Bolsonaro’s leftist rival President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Asked about the arrest, a spokesman said the force “does not disclose or confirm names of detainees or investigated persons.”
Vasques’ arrest took place in Brazil’s southern city of Florianopolis and he will be taken by a police plane to Brasilia, the capital, the source said.
The head of the highway police had met with Bolsonaro before the Oct. 30 runoff vote, which was narrowly won by Lula.
The Superior Electoral Court, the country’s top electoral authority, had to order the removal of the roadblocks to avoid disrupting the election. The head of court, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, said at the time that road blocks had not prevented anyone from voting.
The alleged crimes under investigation include attempting to prevent or disrupt voting, political violence and malfeasance, the police statement said.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Additional reporting and writing by Steven Grattan ; Editing by Conor Humphries)
