SAO PAULO, BRAZIL — Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to be placed under house arrest on Monday. This surprised Brazil’s Supreme Court, according to reports. The judgment was made because Bolsonaro is said to have broken court-imposed restraining orders while he is on trial for allegedly planning a coup to overturn his loss in the 2022 election.
Two Supreme Court sources told Reuters that the order was given just days before the U.S. is poised to put 50% tariffs on Brazilian exports. Donald Trump, the President of the United States, has openly spoken out against the legal action against his ally, calling it a “witch hunt” orchestrated by Moraes. Justice Moraes said in his decision that Bolsonaro used his sons’ social media accounts to publish things that “clearly encouraged and incited attacks against the Supreme Court and openly supported foreign intervention in the Brazilian Judiciary.” People thought this was a planned way to break the court’s rules.
Political Fallout and Tensions in Diplomacy
The current Brazilian administration, led by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is worried that Trump could respond to Moraes’ verdict by hurting Brazil’s economy even more. But people close to Lula’s inner circle told Reuters that the Brazilian administration is not going to fight back against Moraes. They said that the president does not want to or can influence the Supreme Court. Instead, the Lula administration is working on plans to help the companies that will be impacted worst by the tariffs and maintaining diplomatic ties with Washington open.
The U.S. government, on the other hand, has been critical of Moraes’ conduct. The U.S. Treasury Department has put Moraes on a list of people who are not allowed to do business with the U.S. because of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs called him a “U.S.-sanctioned human rights abuser.”
A Country That Is Very Divided
The order for house arrest has made the political split in Brazil even worse. A Quaest poll of social media posts indicated that over half of people were in favor of the arrest (53%) and almost half were against it (47%). Some people in Brazil have praised Moraes for protecting judicial independence, while others, like an editorial in Folha de Sao Paulo, have said he went too far. Carlos Ayres Britto, a former Supreme Court Justice, agreed with the ruling. Marco Aurelio Mello, another former Justice, was worried about the fundamental premise of presumptive innocence.
In the next several weeks, the Supreme Court should make a decision on the coup charges against Bolsonaro. If found guilty, the former president could spend up to 12 years in prison.