Security officials were the first to detect signs of interference with Jair Bolsonaro’s electronic tracking equipment, an act which immediately raised alarm and led to his arrest. Federal police acted swiftly, suspecting the former president was preparing to flee his house arrest and escape to a foreign embassy to avoid a 27-year prison sentence.
At a custody hearing, Bolsonaro denied any escape plot. His defense for the technical tampering was a dramatic one: a drug-induced “psychotic attack” that caused him to hallucinate that the ankle monitor was a secret listening device. He admitted to using a soldering iron to physically damage the device.
Analysts are skeptical of his bizarre medical defense, particularly because he had previously offered the far simpler excuse of acting “out of curiosity.” His decision to damage the monitor came while under the influence of a painkiller and antidepressant cocktail.