Several probes target Brazil’s Bolsonaro, but his COVID decisions are catching up to him first
RIO DE JANEIRO — As Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s term wound down in the final days of December 2022, he had decided to skip the ritual of handing over the presidential sash to his successor, and instead made plans to travel abroad.
But there was a problem, according to a Federal Police indictment unveiled Tuesday: Mr. Bolsonaro didn’t have the necessary vaccination certificate required by U.S. authorities.
So Mr. Bolsonaro turned to his aide-de-camp, Mauro Cid, and asked him to insert false data into the public health system to make it appear as though he and his 12-year-old daughter had received the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the indictment.
Mr. Cid told police he tasked someone with the carrying out the deed, then printed out the certificates inside the presidential palace on Dec. 22 and hand-delivered them to Mr. Bolsonaro, according to detective Fábio Alvarez Shor, who signed the indictment.
It is Mr. Bolsonaro’s first indictment since leaving office, and tampering with public records in Brazil is no trifling matter; should the prosecutor-general’s office decide to use the indictment to file charges at the Supreme Court, the 68-yearold politician could spend up to 12 years behind bars or as little as two years, according to legal analyst Zilan Costa. A separate indictment for criminal association carries a maximum jail time of four years, he said.
Mr. Bolsonaro, who didn’t comment on Tuesday, previously denied any wrongdoing during questioning in May 2023.
In addition to the allegation Mr. Bolsonaro falsified records, another ongoing investigation seeks to determine whether he tried to sneak two sets of expensive diamond jewelry into Brazil and prevent them from being incorporated into the presidency’s public collection. Police are also probing his alleged involvement in the Jan. 8, 2023 uprising in the capital, soon after Mr. Lula took power. It resembled the U.S. Capitol riot in Washington two years prior and sought to restore Mr. Bolsonaro to power. Commanders who served under Mr. Bolsonaro have told police the former leader presented them with a plan for him to remain in power after he lost his 2022 reelection bid.
But it is his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic — which he called “a measly cold” as he brazenly flouted health restrictions and encouraged Brazilians to follow his example — that may have caught up with him first. After vaccines became available, he dismissed them as unnecessary, despite Brazil registering one of the highest death tolls in the world, and repeatedly said he would not receive a jab himself.
His administration ignored several offers from pharmaceutical company Pfizer to sell Brazil tens of millions of shots in 2020, and he openly criticized a move by Sao Paulo state’s governor to buy vaccines from Chinese company Sinovac when no other doses at hand.
Mr. Bolsonaro wasn’t the only one indicted on Tuesday: Mr. Cid and 15 others were accused of involvement in the scheme to falsify records for themselves and others.
“The former president never ordered or knew that any of his advisors had produced vaccination certificates with ideologically false content,” three of Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers said in a statement released late Tuesday. “When he entered the U.S. at the end of December 2022, he was not asked for a vaccination certificate since, as President of the Republic, he was exempt from this requirement.”