Bolsonaro's vaccine card forged before entering U.S., police say
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian police are investigating whether former president Jair Bolsonaro tried to deceive American authorities into wrongly believing the longtime vaccine skeptic had been vaccinated against the coronavirus so he could gain entry to the United States, investigators said Wednesday. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. ArrowRight Federal police carried out a search and seizure operation at Bolsonaro’s Brasília address early Wednesday and arrested several close associates, including a top aide tasked with carrying out Bolsonaro’s administrative demands.
The police action opened a new line of inquiry into the embattled former president, who narrowly lost his reelection bid to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last year and is now the subject of an increasingly number of investigations that could end his political career and even put him in prison.
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Bolsonaro, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has publicly asserted for years that he never received a coronavirus vaccine. But in December, shortly after Bolsonaro lost the election, Brazilian police say, his vaccine status was falsified to say the former president had been vaccinated. In late December, he decamped for Florida in the United States, which only grants entry to vaccinated noncitizens.
Police have asked to question Bolsonaro regarding the matter later Wednesday.
Outside of his house, in comments to reporters, he denied involvement in any fraud.
“I didn’t get the vaccine,” he said. “I was never asked for a vaccination card [to enter the U.S.]. There is no fraud on my part. I didn’t take the vaccine, period.”
Alleging a “criminal association,” police say Bolsonaro’s advisers entered incorrect information into the ministry of health system between November 2021 and December to obtain falsified vaccine certificates for Bolsonaro, his 12-year-old daughter, Laura, and several aides and their family members.
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Police suspect ideology led to the decision to commit fraud rather than get vaccinated.
“The investigation indicates that the objective of the group was to hold together in relation to their ideological agenda,” police said in a statement. “In this case, to sustain the rhetoric regarding their attacks on the coronavirus vaccine.”
The United States does provide several exemptions for its vaccine mandate on entry of noncitizens, including “persons on diplomatic or official foreign government travel,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the Brazilian foreign ministry told The Washington Post that Bolsonaro, who was still president at the time of his entry into the United States, was not on official state business when he entered the United States. No diplomatic meeting had been scheduled.
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The drama provides the latest chapter in what has been a years-long saga of Bolsonaro and the coronavirus vaccine. From the start, he has been skeptical of virtually everything involving a disease that has killed 700,000 in Brazil — first its lethality, then measures to curb its spread, and finally the vaccine that health officials said was essential to overcoming it.
He repeatedly declined to publicize his vaccination status, calling it private health issue. In Late 2021, he said he wouldn’t get vaccinated: “Let me die. The problem is mine.”
The police inquiry is one of a half-dozen criminal investigations involving the former president. He is also under investigation for allegedly inspiring a mob to seize the most important federal buildings in Brasília shortly after Lula’s inauguration and for baselessly alleging that the electoral system would be marred with fraud.
Bolsonaro, who returned to Brazil last month, has quickly reentered political life. He is planning a trip to the northeast and addressed thousands of supporters at an agricultural festival in São Paulo last weekend. He has been reported to be planning to run for the Brazilian senate in 2026.
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Source: The Washington Post
