MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Director of Brazilian Highway Police sacked

Vasques had been accused of campaigning for Bolsonaro

The administration of President Jair Bolsonaro Tuesday announced the dismissal of Brazilian Highway Police Director Silvinei Vasques for “administrative improbity” for his actions or inactions in the aftermath of the Oct. 30 runoff which saw Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva elected to return to the Planalto Palace on Jan. 1.

Vasques' dismissal was signed by Presidential Chief of Staff Ciro Nogueira and it was published in Tuesday's edition of the Diário Oficial da União.

Vasques had been accused in November of campaigning for Bolsonaro between August and October. At that time, the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) requested the immediate removal of Silvinei Vasques from his position.

Vasques is also under investigation for failing to prevent road blockades on federal highways after the elections and his delay in dissolving the demonstrations. He allegedly set up roadblocks during the second round of voting, especially on highways in the Northeast, to board buses with voters, in violation of a decision by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

Federal Highway Police authorities denied any inaction by the agency to prevent demonstrators dissatisfied with Bolsonaro's electoral defeat from blocking vehicle traffic on stretches of some of the country's main federal highways.

Meanwhile, the MPF also launched a probe into timber exploitation on indigenous lands. The agency gave ten days for the presidents of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), Eduardo Bim, and the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), Marcelo Xavier, to detail the studies that served as a basis for authorizing forest management on indigenous lands and explain the possible impacts of the measure.

The regional public prosecutor in the Federal District Wilson Rocha de Almeida Neto also asked for clarification on the measures taken to ensure the right of indigenous peoples to prior consultation, regulated by a 1989 International Labor Organization (ILO) convention, approved by the National Congress in 2002.

Last Friday, the president of Funai authorized a “sustainable forest management with community character” on indigenous lands. According to the text, wood exploitation can be carried out by indigenous organizations or “organizations of mixed composition”, which, in theory, allows the exercise of the activity by non-indigenous people. The measure establishes that the process can only be executed with a “prior consultation” with the indigenous people, without giving details.

In a statement released the same day, Funai informed that the authorization was an “old demand from various ethnic groups” and that the measure will allow the generation of income in a sustainable way in the indigenous villages.

According to the communiqué, forest management would combat illegal deforestation and it would be up to Ibama and Funai to supervise the entire process, based on current regulations. As the normative instruction only comes into force 30 days after publication, it may be revoked by Lula's government without any practical consequences.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)