The U.S. State Department has indicated it is “gravely concerned” about the Brazilian police’s arrest of former President Jair Bolsonaro early Saturday morning, which was done over fears he would try to escape and avoid a 27-year prison sentence.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called the arrest, ordered by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes after Bolsonaro’s ankle monitor was breached while under house arrest, “provocative and unnecessary,” all while trashing Moraes as “dangerous to democracy.”
“Justice Moraes, a sanctioned human rights abuser, has brought Brazil’s Supreme Court into international disrepute and shame by flouting traditional norms of judicial restraint and brazenly politicizing the judicial process,” Landau said in a statement on Saturday. “The US is gravely concerned by his latest attack on the rule of law and political stability in Brazil: the provocative and unnecessary incarceration of former President Bolsonaro, who was already under house arrest under heavy guard and extreme limitations on communication. There is nothing more dangerous to democracy than a judge who knows no limits on his power.”
The statement from the State Department is unsurprising, as the Trump administration has previously condemned Bolsonaro’s prosecution. But the arrest threatens to inflame tensions between the United States and Brazil, which appeared to have waned after President Donald Trump met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last month in Malaysia.
BOLSONARO ARRESTED DAYS AHEAD OF IMPRISONMENT TO ‘ENSURE PUBLIC ORDER’
When asked by a reporter on Saturday about Bolsonaro’s arrest, Trump appeared unaware of it, before lamenting it as “too bad” and taking no further questions.
Bolsonaro was convicted in February for an alleged coup attempt in 2022 following his loss in the country’s presidential election. The former Brazilian president was later sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison, which was set to begin in just days.
, 2025-11-22 23:27:00, 
, Washington Examiner, %%https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cropped-favicon.png?w=32, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/feed/, Zach LaChance
