The far-right politician had been placed under house arrest as a preemptive measure while awaiting to appeal the 27-year jail term handed down in September for plotting to overthrow the government.

Last Saturday, November 22, he took a soldering iron to the electronic ankle tag he had been ordered to wear two months earlier. He later claimed he had experienced medicine-induced “paranoia” and “hallucinations”, leading him to tamper with the device.

The Federal Supreme Court did not buy his explanation, accusing him of planning to abscond and ordering that he be temporarily transferred to Federal Police headquarters in Brasilia.

There were two other factors that supported the flight-risk hypothesis. The first was that a vigil was set to take place that same Saturday in front of the far-right leader’s home and it was believed that he planned to use the expected crowd of supporters as a distraction to slip away undetected. The second was the fact that his house is only minutes away from the embassy of the United States, whose president, Donald Trump, has pressured the Brazilian government to free his ally.

Former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency Alexandre Ramagem, who had also been nominated to serve as chief of the federal police and was convicted along with Bolsonaro, escaped to Miami, most likely in September, where he is currently living in a luxury condo.

Although his passport had been confiscated, he left the country for the United States under cover.

There is little risk that Ramagem will be treated as an illegal alien by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) and put on a plane back to his country, although Trump has started to withdraw his support to his ally.

When on Monday, November 24, he was asked what he thought of the arrest of his “friend”, the normally verbose U.S. President merely responded saying: “It’s too bad”.

Weeks earlier, Trump had rolled back on the insanely high tariffs he had imposed on Brazil in an effort to crush the Latin American country in trade negotiations and force the government to release Bolsonaro, and he has now approached Luis Inácio Lula da Silva.

The New York Times remarked that this case “is a stark example of the limits of Mr. Trump’s ability to bend foreign governments to his will and of his willingness to drop allies and side with a rival when he views it in his interest”.

For Rel UITA, these recent events mark a milestone in the defense of democracy in the region. Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction – for his responsibility in the coup plot and now for an obvious attempt to flee – confirms that no leadership, however powerful it fancies itself to be, can be placed above democratic institutions.

At this historic moment for Brazil and Latin America, the message is unequivocal: Anyone who attacks the constitutional order will have to answer to justice and will not enjoy impunity.

That is the only way to prevent the shadows of authoritarianism from prevailing again over the will of the people.