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Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is a political ally of President Donald Trump, was arrested on Saturday and classified as a flight risk in connection with an alleged attempt to evade his 27-year prison sentence for actions tied to his efforts to remain in power in 2023.
The preemptive arrest was ordered after Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes reported that Bolsonaro’s court-mandated ankle monitor had been tampered with early Saturday morning, according to the Associated Press. De Moraes is the justice overseeing the coup-related case against Bolsonaro, who lost the 2022 presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, The Hill reported.
The detention also followed the circulation of a video posted online by Flávio Bolsonaro — one of the former president’s sons and a sitting federal legislator — in which he urged supporters to gather outside his father’s home.
“(The) information shows the intent of the convict to break the ankle monitoring to assure his escape is successful, which would be made easier by the confusion that would be caused by a demonstration organized by his son,” de Moraes said.
In addition, the judge noted that the former Brazilian president was only around eight miles from the U.S. Embassy.
In September, a majority of Brazil’s Supreme Court justices found Bolsonaro guilty of attempting to stage a coup, participating in an armed criminal organization, attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, and two counts related to the destruction of state property. Justice Alexandre de Moraes joined the majority in the ruling.
The conviction marked the first time a former Brazilian president had been prosecuted for attempting a coup. De Moraes previously described the effort as a “draft decree,” according to earlier reporting by the Associated Press.
“A series of executive acts were carried out aimed at breaking the democratic rule of law and perpetuating power through a coup d’état,” he said.
“We can’t forget that little by little Brazil almost returned to a dictatorship that lasted 20 years,” de Moraes said in September ahead of the country’s Supreme Court decision, in a reference to the country’s military rule between 1964-85. “That was because of a criminal organization built by a political group that doesn’t know how to lose elections.”
De Moraes dismissed Bolsonaro’s assertion that his discussions about “possibilities” for remaining in power were conducted within the bounds of the law.
Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 amid a populist surge following former President Michel Temer’s brief tenure. He defeated lawmaker Fernando Haddad and secured victory after surviving an assassination attempt during the campaign.
Following da Silva’s inauguration in 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters marched to federal buildings in Brasília. Later that year, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court barred Bolsonaro from seeking public office until 2030.
Bolsonaro — a former conservative lawmaker often referred to as the “Trump of the Tropics” — has remained a political ally of current U.S. president, The Hill noted.
“It’s too bad,“ Trump remarked on Saturday regarding Bolsonaro’s arrest, per a White House press pool report.
In 2020, during the president’s initial bid for reelection, the Brazilian leader expressed his support for him. In August, Trump, who was critical of the investigation into the coup, enacted a 50 percent tariff on all Brazilian goods, using the prosecution of Bolsonaro as justification.
In a Truth Social at the time, Trump wrote that the tariffs were imposed “due in part to Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans.”
“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” he wrote. “This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”
