The transition team defined that the escort of the official convoy of Presidentelect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) during the inauguration will not be carried out by the PRF (Federal Highway Police) as is traditional.
In their place, the military police of the Federal District will deploy company scouts this Sunday (1st).
The prime minister’s escort was to be led from the hotel where the presidentelect is staying to Brasília Cathedral the place where the ceremony will begin with a parade in an open or armored car that will take Lula to the National Congress.
However, the president’s departure location is subject to change according to the agenda that Lula sets for January 1.
PM scouts will also be responsible for assisting the President in exiting the Esplanada dos Ministérios. The moment is still uncertain because the transition assesses Lula’s participation in one of the concerts scheduled to celebrate the inauguration after the president attended a ceremony at Itamaraty Palace.
According to people linked to Lula’s security, the decision that the PRF will not be in Lula’s convoy was made early in the transition, when Silvinei Vasques was still the company’s general manager. The request for the military police to take over the escort has recently been made official.
At the request of Lula’s team, the PRF should only conduct the escort of the foreign authorities who will attend the inauguration of the Presidentelect.
The National Force was called up this Wednesday (28) to help with the work as some 50 delegations from other countries were confirmed for the inauguration. This requires more staff than in previous years.
The move comes amid the elected government’s suspicions about possible manipulation of the PRF after the company was accused of conducting operations to harm Lula on election day.
Silvinei Vasques, who was elected head of the company by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), resigned on the 20th and managed to retire at the age of 47.
He is under investigation for three acts in which he would have exceeded the powers of the PRF to offer Bolsonaro a possible favoritism in this year’s election.
First, he published a post on his Instagram profile declaring his vote for president the day before the second round of this year’s election, which was deleted after the fallout from the case.
The post contained an image of the Brazilian flag and the text “vote 22nd Bolsonaro President”. The picture went viral on social media before it was deleted.
The second concerns a PRF operation on the morning of the second shift to investigate cases of illegal transportation of people.
The operation was carried out despite the PRF’s explicit ban on the day of the election, a decision by the President of the TSE (Supreme Electoral Court), Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
The operation was only halted after a meeting between Vasques and Moraes on Sunday afternoon of the election. At the meeting, the judge asked for the operation to be completed. THE Sheet found that by 12:35 p.m. that day, the PRF had already carried out 514 control actions against buses.
The third inquiry looks at the PRF’s actions after Lula’s victory, when the company would have been lenient with roadblocks encouraged by truck drivers unhappy with Bolsonaro’s defeat.
The MPF (Federal Prosecutor’s Office) stated that the PRF’s actions in the face of the roadblocks showed “not only the lack of action by the Federal Highway Police in the face of the unlawful actions of the demonstrators, but also statements by officials of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in support of the demonstrators, as if this were those of the guidance received from higher organs of the institution”.