The delinquent Jair Bolsonaro finally receives his just punishment: prison.

On Saturday, November 22, 2025, the Federal Police, acting on a warrant issued by Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court, arrested former President Jair Bolsonaro at his residence in Brasília and transferred him to a Federal Police facility.

The decision, which has no set deadline, was motivated by the violation of his electronic ankle monitor and the high risk of flight, aggravated by the call for a vigil of supporters made by his son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. This is the provisional epilogue of a trajectory that, from military insubordination to the highest office of the Republic, culminated in the conviction for the infamous attempted coup d'état after Lula's election in 2022.

Bolsonaro's story is a chronicle of a life dedicated to political delinquency. This trajectory, full of despicable moments, was equally marked by the leniency of the institutions that should have controlled it. This impunity is now, finally, encountering the checks and balances of democracy.

The seed of this path was planted during his military life. In 1986, then-Captain Bolsonaro became known to the general public when he was arrested for writing an article for the magazine. VejaWithout the knowledge of his superiors, he criticized the low salaries of the military. The episode, however, was only the prelude. 

In 1987, the same magazine revealed that Bolsonaro allegedly planned to detonate explosives at military facilities in Rio de Janeiro, such as the Higher School for Officer Improvement and the Guandu River aqueduct, in a radical protest. He denied authorship, but the publication even released a drawing that was supposedly made by him. The case resulted in a conviction in the first instance, but he was acquitted by the Superior Military Court in 1988. Transferred to the reserve, he left behind a career marked by insubordination and entered politics, being elected councilman of Rio de Janeiro in 1988.

His move to Parliament did not signify the adoption of republican conduct. On the contrary, it implied a constant exercise of sabotaging democracy from within its institutions.

As a federal deputy for seven consecutive terms, Bolsonaro established himself not as a productive legislator—he never passed a relevant bill or chaired a committee—but as a despicable figure whose name echoed in headlines mainly for statements defending torture and murders committed by the military dictatorship, in addition to uttering speeches considered racist and hateful against minorities. He was a low-ranking politician who vocalized an aggressive conservatism and fed on conflict. 

This profile, paradoxically, became his leverage. Taking advantage of the anti-PT sentiment always fostered by the hegemonic media and amplified by Lava Jato, and transforming himself into a social media phenomenon, he launched his presidential campaign in 2018 with an anti-establishment, pro-gun discourse and, superficially, a defense of family values, being elected after a second round against Fernando Haddad.

A stabbing he suffered during the campaign, from which he survived, was attributed by himself as the crucial moment that boosted his candidacy. His government, which began in 2019, was characterized by the dismantling of public policies, attacks on environmental protection agencies, and the promotion of uncontrolled armament. 

Even more tragically, the Bolsonaro administration was marked by a denialist and criminal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in which it downplayed the disease, discouraged vaccination, and promoted ineffective treatments, contributing to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths. Simultaneously, it waged a constant and systematic conflict with democratic institutions, especially the Supreme Federal Court.

The electoral defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022 was not accompanied by a peaceful transition. On the contrary, it was the trigger for putting into practice a meticulous plot to remain in power. In September of this year, the Supreme Federal Court, by majority vote, sentenced Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and 3 months in prison for the crimes of attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, attempted coup d'état, participation in an armed criminal organization, aggravated damage, and deterioration of listed heritage. 

The rapporteur, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, was emphatic in stating that Bolsonaro was fundamental in bringing together highly trusted individuals from the highest levels of government, forming the central core of a criminal organization whose greatest consequence would be a return to dictatorship in Brazil. The sentence was the legal consequence for the coup-like acts that culminated in the attacks of January 8, 2023, when hordes of his incited supporters invaded and vandalized the headquarters of the Three Branches of Government.

This Saturday's arrest, therefore, is not an isolated event or an accident. It is the coherent outcome of a biography that has always flirted with illegality and the breakdown of institutions, ever since the time when, in uniform, he planned to blow up barracks. The rise of Jair Bolsonaro has revealed well-known fissures and weaknesses in democracy. 

Its fall, though belated, marks crucial advances in the affirmation of institutions. Above all, it demonstrates that Brazil lives under a democratic Constitution, from which power emanates. Respecting the 1988 Constitution is everyone's obligation. Under its aegis rests the Democratic Rule of Law. Incredibly, this is so new that it is almost revolutionary.

Even the most powerful can be held accountable for their crimes. As is now crystal clear, justice was slow in coming, but it has finally arrived for the delinquent Jair Bolsonaro.