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Authorities arrested a close aide to former President Jair Bolsonaro on charges of falsifying vaccination records, likely to help Mr. Bolsonaro enter the United States.
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By Flávia Milhorance and Ana Ionova
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian police raided the home of former President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday and confiscated his cellphone as part of a thorough investigation into false covid-19 vaccination records that could have allowed him and his more sensible aides to enter the United States. . .
Authorities searched more than a dozen homes in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia and arrested six people, one of Brazil’s closest associates. Bolsonaro and two of his security agents are suspected of falsifying a government vaccination database and publishing falsified records.
The fake vaccine cards would possibly have allowed M. Bolsonaro and his aides circumvented U. S. restrictions put in place at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, researchers said.
A false vaccination certificate may have been issued for M. Bolsonaro, his 12-year-old daughter, Laura, and other top officials in his administration, according to Brazilian authorities. Police said vaccination records were falsified between November 2021 and December 2022.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro denied claiming to have been vaccinated and said the U. S. immigration government never asked him to show a vaccination record.
“At no point did I say I had been vaccinated and I didn’t,” M said. Bolsonaro to journalists outside his apartment in Brasilia after handing over his cellphone to police. He called the resolution not to vaccinate a “personal resolution” and proved his daughter had also not been vaccinated.
Bolsonaro has been named as a suspect in the investigation, according to documents released Wednesday by Brazil’s Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said in a ruling approving the searches that the investigative link between the president and an imaginable crime is “plausible, logical and solid. “”
During his tenure as Brazil’s right-wing president, Bolsonaro, a fervent critic of covid shootings, has consistently sidestepped questions about whether he is vaccinated against the virus. His vaccination prestige is so controversial that in 2021, Congress placed a century-long seal of secrecy on Mr. S. Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro has visited the United States at least 4 times during the pandemic, adding in September 2021, when he led a delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. During the trip, he posted a photo of himself and his entourage dining pizza outside, prompting a hypothesis as to whether the organization had been banned from dining indoors due to Covid restrictions.
Bolsonaro has been heavily criticized for blocking the procurement of covid vaccines and spreading incorrect information about them. At one point, he claimed the blows could turn Brazilians into crocodiles.
A Brazilian congressional investigation concluded that Bolsonaro is expected to be charged with “crimes against humanity” for his handling of the pandemic, which has killed another 700,000 people in Brazil. Prosecutors have not prosecuted those charges.
Police were due to inform Bolsonaro about the falsified vaccination records later Wednesday.
After the raid on his home, the usually brash Bolsonaro made a solemn impression while speaking on a right-wing TV show. There was no fraud on my part. ” Sometimes he seemed to cry the interview.
Among those arrested on Wednesday was Mauro Cid Barbosa, an army officer who was named by Mr. Bolsonaro.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took advantage of the mismanagement of the pandemic through Mr. Bolsonaro in last year’s election, which he narrowly won. Vowing to lift the veil of secrecy, Lula began examining many seals of confidentiality established during Mr. Sir’s tenure. Bolsonaro.
“I’m going to let Brazilians know why you hide so much,” Lula told Bolsonaro in a debate last year.
In addition, Bolsonaro faces a series of investigations, one more for spreading false election data and for inspiring the invasion of Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidencies of Brazil on January 8. Brazil’s electoral tribunal is expected to rule this month on a case in which Mr. Bolsonaro is accused of abusing his own when he criticized Brazil’s electoral formula in a speech to foreign diplomats ahead of last year’s election.
It is also the subject of several Supreme Court investigations, adding his handling of the pandemic; accusations of false dissemination; and a classifieds leak when he spoke about a hack of the country’s electoral firm to back up his baseless claims that Brazil’s electoral formula is not secure.
If convicted in one of the investigations, Mr. Bolsonaro may be declared ineligible to run for president in the upcoming election.
Flávia Milhorance reported from Rio de Janeiro and Ana Ionova reported from Toronto.
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