- A group falsified vaccination information for former President Jair Bolsonaro
- Brazilian authorities raided Bolsonaro's home
- Before Bolsonaro left for the United States, vaccination cards were forged
On Wednesday, Brazilian authorities searched former President Jair Bolsonaro's house and confiscated his cellphone as part of a broad probe into fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination records that may have allowed him and his senior advisers to enter the United States.
Authorities raided more than a dozen houses in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, detaining six people, including one of Bolsonaro's closest aides and two of his security guards, on suspicion of tampering with a government vaccination database and issuing false documents.
Jair Bolsonaro's Fake COVID-19 Vaccine Cards
According to investigators, the fake vaccine cards may have allowed Bolsonaro and his aides to avoid US travel restrictions imposed during the height of the coronavirus outbreak.
Brazilian authorities said false vaccine certificates might have been produced for Bolsonaro, his 12-year-old daughter Laura, and other key officials in his government, NY Times reported. According to the authorities, the vaccination documents were fabricated between November 2021 and December 2022.
Bolsonaro disputed on Wednesday that he had ever claimed to be vaccinated and that US immigration authorities had never required him to present a vaccination record.
While he had always stated that he would not receive the vaccine, he refused to make his vaccination record public, claiming it contained sensitive personal information. However, an official in his successor's new government, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, ruled that the information was in the public interest.
Per BBC News, the certificate stated Bolsonaro had a vaccination in 2021, but authorities believe the paperwork was fabricated and initiated the inquiry that led to Wednesday's search.
According to federal police, "fake data" was entered into the Brazilian Ministry of Health's COVID-19 vaccination database so that individuals whose vaccination status had been modified may get the vaccination certificates required to enter the United States.
Bolsonaro denied tampering with any data following the raid. "There was nothing faked on my part," he told reporters. He also denied having had a COVID-19 vaccine: "I did not receive the immunization. Period."
The allegedly bogus data was placed into the records between November and December last year when Bolsonaro was still president. Bolsonaro visited Florida at the end of December, just days before his opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was inaugurated.
The US has not commented on what visa the then-president used to enter the country or what immunization records he supplied at the time.
Investigations Against Jair Bolsonaro
The vaccination inquiry is only one of several that are putting pressure on the former far-right leader, including inquiries into suspected voter suppression, his assaults on the integrity of Brazilian elections, and the misappropriation of foreign gifts. Bolsonaro has had to go before the police twice since his return to Brazil on March 30 to testify in two different investigations.
One is looking into his suspected participation in his followers storming the Brazilian Congress in January. He is also being probed for attempting to illegally import and store millions of dollars in jewelry handed to him and his wife by Saudi Arabia in 2019.
In those situations, Bolsonaro has denied any misconduct. In a statement, federal police said they were serving 16 search warrants and six preventative arrest orders as part of Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro's operation without naming targeted people.
The Supreme Court, handling the case, issued court documents on Wednesday, including an arrest order for Mauro Cid, one of Bolsonaro's aides when he was president and remained an aide after he stood down.
According to prosecution records, police stated evidence that Cid devised a method in which Bolsonaro was registered on December 21 as having been vaccinated against COVID-19. The entry was made in a public health office in Rio de Janeiro's suburbs and was withdrawn a week later, as per Reuters.
Max Guilherme and Sergio Cordeiro, Bolsonaro's security personnel who have remained on his detail, were also arrested in Wednesday's raid on suspicion of falsifying their vaccination documents before traveling with Bolsonaro to the United States.
According to authorities, the inquiry indicates "ideological" motivations for evading vaccination restrictions "to maintain a rhetoric of fighting immunization against COVID-19."
