Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the nation’s police on Tuesday to conduct full-time, 24-hour surveillance of conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is already under house arrest at his residence in Brasília.
The STF explained on its website that de Moraes’ decision, approved by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Brazil, grants a request made by the Federal Police (PF) responding to calls from leftist lawmaker Lindbergh Farias, who leads the ruling Workers’ Party (PT) faction in the Brazilian Congress.
This week, Farias called for the PF to increase its surveillance on Bolsonaro alleging a purported “real risk” of Bolsonaro fleeing. The lawmaker reportedly argued that Bolsonaro could try to seek political asylum at the U.S. embassy in Brasília, which is “located about 10 minutes from his home.”
Unnamed sources told a reporter from the Brazilian outlet Metrópoles on Wednesday morning that the police offers were “well received” by the security guards in the neighborhood, local residents, and by former president Bolsonaro himself, who was officially notified of the new measure. Security personnel further detailed that agents remain stationed in continuous shifts at both the residence’s main entrance and around it.
“They have access to the private security guardhouse as a support point and maintain direct contact with the Criminal Police monitoring centers and the electronic monitoring system that tracks Bolsonaro’s ankle bracelet,” Metrópoles reported.
“Monitoring should avoid undue exposure, and agents must avoid any indiscretion, including media indiscretion, and may not take any action that disturbs the neighborhood or affects the former president’s home life. The use of uniforms and weapons is at the discretion of the department,” STF explained.
“In his decision, the minister [Justice de Moraes] highlighted the proximity of Bolsonaro’s trial and the need to ensure compliance with criminal law. He said that the requested monitoring measures are ‘absolutely necessary and appropriate,’ without any aggravation of Bolsonaro’s situation,” the note continued.
According to Brazilian outlets, Farias cited in his request to the police a purported draft document found by police investigators in Bolsonaro’s phone that, the investigators claimed, suggests Bolsonaro planned to request political asylum in Argentina from President Javier Milei in 2024. At that time, de Moraes had ordered a police raid against Bolsonaro that concluded with officials seizing the former president’s passport, effectively trapping him in Brazil.
The alleged document was revealed last week as part of a new, fourth indictment process against Bolsonaro that also targeted his son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, on allegations of “coercion” in the ongoing “coup” trial against Bolsonaro and “abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law.” Eduardo Bolsonaro is presently in the United States after requesting political asylum this year on the grounds that he is the target of a persecution campaign led by de Moraes.
“The incessant actions of Eduardo Nantes Bolsonaro, even while located in a foreign country, demonstrate the possibility of a risk of flight on the part of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, in order to evade the application of criminal law, notably due to the proximity of the trial on the merits of AP 2.668/DF, scheduled in the First Panel of this Supreme Court between September 2, 2025, and September 12, 2025,” de Moraes’ ruling read, according to STF’s website.
Former President Bolsonaro stands accused alongside several other individuals of allegedly plotting to stage a “coup” and overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election, in which a then-incument Bolsonaro narrowly lost against socialist convicted felon Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is presently serving his third term.
Bolsonaro is unable to legally comment on the new surveillance measures against him or any other matter after de Moraes ordered house arrest for Bolsonaro in early August. As part of the terms dictated by de Moraes, Bolsonaro is prohibited from utilizing phone devices or any social media platform under penalty of imprisonment.
PF’s director-general Andrei Rodrigues reportedly stated on Tuesday that he also requested that the STF allow a police team inside Bolsonaro’s residence to “ensure compliance with the house arrest.” According to Rodrigues, the new measures do not prevent Bolsonaro from escaping.
According to the outlet Poder 360, Brazil’s Federal Police also contacted the National Secretariat for Penal Policy (Senappen) and offered to work together with the entity, emphasizing that the presence of agents inside the former president’s home would be “essential” to prevent any risk of escape.
The new indictment against Jair and Eduardo Bolsonaro stems from a broader investigation launched by de Moraes this year. The controversial justice ordered PF to determine if Congressman Bolsonaro is promoting “retaliatory actions by the administration of President Donald Trump against Brazilian government officials and STF justices.”
De Moraes was recently targeted with U.S. human rights sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act for a consistent pattern of persecuting conservative political activity in Brazil, including arbitrary detentions, denial of fair trial guarantees, censorship, punishing free speech, and other serious human right abuses.
In July, President Trump signed an executive order in July identifying Brazil as a national security threat to the United States and imposing a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods entering the U.S. President Trump cited the “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro and the numerous acts of persecution and censorship committed by de Moraes in recent years as reasons for the tariffs.
Last week, STF Justice Flávio Dino issued a ruling that forbids Brazilian entities from complying with foreign judicial or executive orders. Dino’s ruling, while issued in relation to an unrelated judicial case, effectively prohibits Brazilian banks from complying with the U.S. sanctions against de Moraes by closing the Justice’s accounts under penalty of fines and other administrative measures.
Although former President Bolsonaro is prohibited from using social media, his wife, former First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro, reportedly published an Instagram story on Tuesday shortly after the STF announced the new surveillance measures against her husband.
In the story’s text, the former first lady wrote, “We will win,” and professed her faith to God regardless of the “bad days.” Instagram “stories” are usually scheduled to disappear within 24 hours.
“You know … with each passing day, the challenge has been enormous: resisting persecution, dealing with uncertainty, and enduring humiliation. But it’s nothing,” she wrote. “We will overcome. God is good all the time, and we have a promise. Father, I love You, regardless of the bad days. I praise You with all my heart. You have not lost control of anything at all. Today I declare: Brazil belongs to the Lord Jesus.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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