Brazil police raid home of Bolsonaro, accused of plotting coup

LeMonde

4 days ago

Brazilian police raided Jair Bolsonaro's home Friday, July 18, as a judge imposed further restrictions on the far-right former leader while he stands trial on coup charges that have vexed US President and ally Donald Trump. His son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman who recently moved to the United States to lobby for his father, wrote on X that federal police carried out a "raid on my father's home this morning."
He lashed out at Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, a Bolsonaro adversary who on Friday ordered the ex-president to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, not leave his home at night, or use social media. Moraes, one of the judges in Bolsonaro's trial for allegedly seeking to nullify leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's 2022 election victory, said the measures were necessary given the "hostile acts" against Brazil by the accused and his son.
This came after Trump announced a 50% tariff on the South American powerhouse for what he said was a "witch hunt" against his ally Bolsonaro.
Moraes, said Eduardo Bolsonaro, "has long abandoned any semblance of impartiality and now operates as a political gangster in robes, using the Supreme Court as his personal weapon."
The judge was "trying to criminalize President Trump and the US government. Powerless against them, he chose to take my father hostage," he added in a letter he signed as a "Brazilian congressman in exile."
'Supreme humiliation'
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday that Washington was revoking a US visa for Moraes for his "political witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro." Accusing him of creating a "persecution and censorship complex," Rubio also announced visa restrictions on other judges who side with Moraes, as well as their immediate family members.
Bolsonaro, 70, described the Moraes order Friday as a "supreme humiliation" and said the prohibitions were "suffocating." It also prohibited him from approaching foreign embassies, and confined him to his home on weekdays between 7:00 pm and 6:00 am, and all day on weekends or public holidays.
"I never thought about leaving Brazil, I never thought about going to an embassy," Bolsonaro insisted on emerging from the justice secretariat offices in Brasilia. He had been taken there after the raid, during which police seized cash.
His defense team in a statement expressed "surprise and indignation" at the new measures. The former army captain denies he was involved in an attempt to wrest power back from Lula as part of an alleged coup plot that prosecutors say failed only for a lack of military backing. After the plot fizzled, rioting supporters known as "Bolsonaristas" raided government buildings in early 2023 as they urged the military to oust Lula. Bolsonaro was abroad at the time.
The case against Bolsonaro carries echoes of Trump's failed prosecution over the January 6, 2021 attacks by his supporters on the US Capitol to try and reverse his election loss to Joe Biden. Both men have claimed to be victims of political persecution, and Trump has stepped in in defense of his ally, to the anger of Lula who has labeled the tariff threat "unacceptable blackmail."
Washington also announced an investigation into "unfair trading practices" by Brazil, a move that could provide a legal basis for imposing tariffs on South America's largest economy. On Tuesday, prosecutors asked the trial judges of the Supreme Court to find Bolsonaro guilty of "armed criminal association" and planning to "violently overthrow the democratic order."
The defense must still present its closing arguments, after which a five-member panel of judges, including Moraes, will decide the ex-president's fate. Bolsonaro and seven co-accused risk up to 40 years in prison.