The preventive arrest of former president Jair Messias Bolsonaro (PL), which took place this morning (22) by the Federal Police (PF), following a determination by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), gained prominence in newspapers around the world. Check out the repercussions:
The Guardian
The English newspaper The Guardian, which highlighted the preventive detention in the headlines on its website, stated that “Brazilian police arrested Bolsonaro on suspicion of escape” and cited Papuda.
“Speculation about Bolsonaro’s imminent arrest has reached a fever pitch in recent days, with allies expressing outrage at the possibility of the former president being sent to a maximum security prison in Brasília called Papuda,” the newspaper assessed.
Associated Press (AP)
The Associated Press, an American news agency, also highlighted the former president’s supposed intention to escape, alleged by Moraes.
In the article republished by international media giants, such as the American newspaper The Washington Post e a NBC Newsa AP classified Bolsonaro as “a controversial figure in Brazilian politics” and highlighted that his lawyers “begged the Federal Supreme Court to keep him under house arrest to serve his sentence, citing his precarious state of health.”
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- Vigil, risk of escape and attempt to break ankle bracelet: what led to Bolsonaro’s arrest
The American agency recalled that Trump, described as an ally of the former Brazilian president, classified the trial that condemned Bolsonaro as a “witch hunt” and that the case “was mentioned in a July executive order from the American government that increased tariffs on several Brazilian exports by 50%.”
The Country
Classifying Bolsonaro as an “ultra-right” leader, the Spanish newspaper El País recalled the former president’s conviction for an attempted coup and cited that he was “arrested after tampering with his electronic ankle bracelet the day before he began serving his sentence.”
The Spanish newspaper also cited that the vigil — one of the reasons for the preventive detention — called by senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president’s eldest son, carried a “clearly bellicose and messianic tone, with references to the ‘God of armies’ and biblical verses.”
The newspaper also cited the “escape from Ramagem”.
“One of his co-defendants, Brazilian federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem, sentenced to 16 years in prison, fled to the United States, despite being prohibited from leaving Brazil and having been forced to surrender his passport.”
Al Jazeera
The Arabic newspaper highlighted the arrest with the following headline: “Bolsonaro, from Brazil, is arrested days before the start of his 27-year prison sentence.”
Al Jazeera recalled Bolsonaro’s convictions, pointing out a similarity between January 8 and “the January 6 riots at the United States Capitol, after his close ally, President Donald Trump, lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.”
“Trump classified the case against his far-right ally as a ‘witch hunt’ and turned it into a central issue in US relations with Brazil, imposing high tariffs on the country as a form of retaliation”, pointed out the Middle East newspaper.
New York Times (NYT)
The New York Times stated that “the National Congress is already debating how to release” Bolsonaro from prison and points out that, now, the “debate revolves around granting amnesty to Mr. Bolsonaro and the other defendants […] casting a shadow over a young democracy with a long history of coups d’état.”
“Members of Congress are already publishing bills, television commentators are speculating about the chances of approval and demonstrators on both sides are protesting for and against the measure. Activists even projected the phrase “no to amnesty” with the Brazilian flag on Tower Bridge, in London”, assesses the New York newspaper.
In its analysis, the NYT points out that “it is far from certain that Mr. Bolsonaro will be acquitted, and the legislative and legal process still has a long way to go before that happens.”
“But the fact that amnesty has already become such a prominent issue, even before a verdict, says a lot about Brazil, its politics and its history.”
