Brazilian democracy has spent the past three years in a near-permanent state of tension – a full-body clench against an ex-president who refused to accept defeat. On Saturday morning, those muscles tightened again.
Jair Bolsonaro, already convicted of plotting a coup and sentenced to 27 years in prison, was taken into preventive custody after Brazil’s Supreme Court said he had tried to tamper with his ankle monitor and was a flight risk.
It was one of the most extraordinary responses a democracy can deploy against a former leader. And yet, in Brazil’s current trajectory, it was not entirely surprising: Bolsonaro’s presidency and post-presidency have repeatedly forced the country’s institutions to…
