Vasques' crime consisted of sending police officers in an attempt to prevent people from voting in left-leaning areas in the 2022 elections, which the then-incumbent Bolsonaro lost to Lula da Silva.
He was arrested in 2023 and sentenced earlier in December to 24 years in prison, a sentence to be served under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. But according to Brazilian media, he seized the opportunity, cut off the shackles and drove across the border into neighboring Paraguay.
50-year-old Silvinei Vasques was arrested early Friday at the airport in the Paraguayan capital Asunción on his way to board a plane to El Salvador, a Brazilian police source told AFP.
A judge in Brazil has decided that he will now serve his sentence in prison, rather than under house arrest.
70-year-old Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for the coup attempt.
