Bolsonaro says he sees Cid as a son and that someone screwed up his vaccination card – 05/19/2023 – Politics

Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said he considers his imprisoned former aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, as a son. And at the same time, he claimed that “someone screwed up” in the vaccine card fraud episode.

In an interview with Veja magazine, released this Friday (19), Bolsonaro also said that “there are no reasons” for a possible arrest: “To have any reason to justify this, I would need to have done at least 10% of what he [presidente Lula] he did. And I did 0%”.

The PF (Federal Police) carried out a search and seizure operation on the last day of the 3rd of the ex-chief of the Executive’s house, and arrested three of his main assistants, among them Cid. The suspicion is that the military man devised a scheme that tampered with public vaccination data for his daughters, assistants and Bolsonaro himself.

“Apparently, someone made a mistake. I’m not hitting the hammer. There’s no problem on my part. I didn’t need a vaccine to enter the US. My daughter didn’t need anything either”, said the former representative.

Although he admits the possibility of “bullshit”, Bolsonaro does not say who the author would be, despite the indications of the PF investigation.

He further says that Cid was considered “a son”. The assistant’s father, General Mauro Cesar Lourena Cid, was in Bolsonaro’s class at Aman (Military Academy of Agulhas Negras).

“He is the son of a general in my class, I consider him a son. (…) He answered the phone, sometimes a congressman, organized some missions that I gave. He also kept my Banco do Brasil card with him. my bills, I paid Michelle’s bills, but I didn’t participate in the government’s decisions, I didn’t interfere. I wasn’t, as some people think, a counselor”, he said.

Cid’s proximity to Bolsonaro has always caused noise within the government. The former president’s right-hand man, he was pointed out by allies as a member of the most radical wing, and was blamed for allegedly setting the then president on fire on some issues, such as electronic voting machines.

The lieutenant colonel made the presentation powerpoint to the ambassadors in the election year, in which Bolsonaro raises doubts about the ballot boxes, without evidence. The episode led to an investigation against him.

The former president spent his government casting doubts on the electoral system, and when he lost reelection, he did not admit defeat and left the country before the end of his term, to avoid the traditional democratic rite of passing the sash to his successor. , Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

Now, it adopts a different posture: “Turned page”. And, if when he was at the head of the Planalto Palace, he did not mediate attacks on the STF (Federal Supreme Court), this Friday, he said that he does not want to polemicize or “put fuel on the fire”.

He also rejects allies’ coup impulses, especially at the end of his term. He told Veja that, if there was someone who defended the coup, it did not come to his attention. Allies spoke in a venting tone, he said, without specifying what the “outburst” would be.

Bolsonaro also minimized his proximity to former Army major Ailton Barros, who sent coup audios to Cid, as discovered by the PF.

“Ailton doesn’t mobilize half a dozen domino players. (…) If you talk to him, in thirty seconds he doesn’t want to talk anymore”, he said.