Fraud in Bolsonaro's vaccination record may be the tip of a long thread, says Wadih Damous.

Current Brazil Network - Investigations surrounding Jair Bolsonaro's (PL) former aide, Mauro Cid, arrested last week by the Federal Police, point to unpredictable developments that increasingly compromise the former president. The Federal Police (PF) wants to know what might be behind the large amount of cash found in the military officer's home. The lieutenant colonel is already under investigation for money laundering.

Last week, agents found US$35 and R$16 at the residence of Bolsonaro's right-hand man, totaling approximately R$190. He was arrested in Operation Venire on suspicion of defrauding vaccination cards, but police investigations seem to show that this fraud – which is serious in itself – is just the tip of the iceberg.

Or a "tangled ball of yarn" that is beginning to unravel, in the expression used by the National Consumer Secretary, Wadih Damous, in an interview with TVT. For him, Mauro Cid is "much more than an aide, he was the alter ego" of the former head of government. So much so that he had the card password and paid the personal bills of the boss and his wife, Michelle. "The defense's argument (that Bolsonaro has nothing to do with Cid's alleged conduct) will have to be very well demonstrated," says Damous.

In addition to the money, the Federal Police found a bank account in the name of the former aide-de-camp in the United States. The Federal Police will investigate the origin of the money and will request the lifting of Cid's confidentiality to gain access to the transactions in this overseas account.

Investigation

Damous classifies Cid's situation as a "mosaic" that seems to be unraveling from the vaccine fraud. Why, for example, did Bolsonaro decree 100 years of secrecy for vaccination cards? For the secretary, it is when the unconstitutional 100-year decree is revoked that it is discovered that the issue of the vaccination card may be the tip of "a tangled ball of yarn".

“In investigations of this magnitude, you aim at one target and hit others that weren't foreseen,” Damous assesses. For him, everything that has been revealed could show the links in a coup d'état plot. “I have the impression that the investigation will show this.”

In Damous's opinion, who is a lawyer, caution is needed when analyzing the facts, considering that, according to the Constitution, any citizen must be considered innocent until proven otherwise. "But the evidence against Bolsonaro is overwhelmingly clear," he says.

The former president's hasty departure from the country on January 30th, before Lula's inauguration, appears to be linked to the falsification. From the moment he ceased being president, Bolsonaro would need to prove he had a vaccination certificate from the United States.

The defense and allies of the former president have said that if he didn't get vaccinated and always said so, why would he falsify a certificate? What they are trying to prove is that he possibly needed the certificate in the US. Therefore, "he benefited from the falsification of the certificate there, with the aggravating factor of having committed a crime (in the United States) with a falsified document."

Questions about Mauro Cid

“Why would (the aide) do that without being ordered by Bolsonaro? Why would he have falsified the vaccination certificate of the boss and also of his daughter? What would justify that?” Damous asks. This would constitute another crime, that of corruption of a minor: “exposing his 12-year-old daughter.” ("Under the protection of the Statute of Children and Adolescents) the fraudulent action," explains the secretary. "It's a far-reaching investigation."

"If the investigation reveals that Bolsonaro was involved in these attempted forgery transactions, I have the impression that there has never been an episode in Brazilian history with this scenario of organized crime and association involving a president of the Republic."