This month saw a huge breakthrough in the tragic novela that is contemporary politics in Brazil, with the arrest of a man called Fabrício Queiroz, who had been in hiding for 18 months.
His arrest – at a house belonging to the Bolsonaro family lawyer – is key because, according to prosecutors, Queiroz is the gatekeeper for a raft of corrupt activity committed over the last two decades by members of the Bolsonaro family. He is particularly close to senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son, and could potentially inflict enormous damage on the Presidency.
Fabrício Queiroz’s friendship with the president goes back to 1984, when he served as army recruit under Bolsonaro’s tutelage. After leaving the army, Queiroz joined Rio’s military police. He was well known and feared by residents in the City of God favela (made famous by the film of the same name). One night in 2003, he and a colleague shot and killed a resident while on patrol. A homicide investigation into the incident remains open today.
