San Francisco Frontiers - Bolsonaro detained: the fall of Brazil's polarizing firebrand

This trademark defiance has crumbled as the man who rose from fringe firebrand to president and reshaped Brazilian politics was detained Saturday as a preventative measure.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, once electrified supporters with his gloves-off style while drawing criticism for vitriolic comments slamming gays, demeaning women and praising Brazil's dictatorship years.

In recent months the 70-year-old has cut a more subdued figure, with regular visits to hospital, violent bouts of hiccups, and reports in the media about his fragile mental health while under house arrest.

Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison in September after being convicted of plotting to prevent leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power in early 2023.

One appeal has already been rejected, and as his lawyers plan further last-ditch efforts to overturn the conviction, the Supreme Court ruled he was a flight risk, with intelligence pointing to a planned escape during a vigil by supporters outside his home.

He was taken into custody without handcuffs or media exposure as he awaits further appeals, or the looming start of a three-decade-long sentence.

The coup charges against Bolsonaro included plans to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and Alexandre de Moraes -- who led the trial against him.

Judges found that the coup plot only failed because it did not have enough support from military top brass.

Bolsonaro claims he is the victim of political persecution.

When he ran for office in 2022, Bolsonaro said there were three potential outcomes for his future: "Prison, death or victory."

The prison option however, "does not exist," he said.

"By God who is in heaven, I will never be imprisoned," he said that same year.

- 'Bibles, bullets and beef' -

Bolsonaro was a longtime congressman known for inflammatory statements when he managed to seize a crucial political moment in Brazil: wide-ranging disgust over a series of corruption scandals that had engulfed leftist governments.

His diatribes against the "rotten" left and fiery remarks about homosexuality and the role of women won him the support of Brazil's powerful so-called "Bibles, bullets and beef" electorate -- evangelical Christians, security hardliners and the agribusiness industry.

Bolsonaro's brash style also earned him the moniker "Trump of the Tropics," when he was elected in 2018.

He and his family forged close ties with the US President Donald Trump, who called the trial against his ally a "witch hunt" and punished Brazil with sanctions and trade tariffs.

On the campaign trail, Bolsonaro survived a knife attack that left him with severe abdominal wounds that continue to plague him to this day.

His lawyers on Friday filed a petition for him to serve his sentence under house arrest, citing his "deeply debilitated" health, with many issues linked to the stab wound.

- Amazon fires and Covid denial-

Born in 1955 to a Catholic family with Italian roots, Bolsonaro served in the army before launching his political career in the late 1980s as a Rio de Janeiro city councilor.

In 1991, he was elected to Congress.

He quickly became known for his incendiary comments, claiming he was in favor of dictatorship and defending torture.

In 2011, he told Playboy magazine he would rather his sons be killed in an accident than come out as gay.

Three years later, he said a left-wing lawmaker was "not worth raping" because she was "too ugly."

Bolsonaro drew international criticism as fires and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest spiked under his leadership and he weakened environmental agencies.

When Covid-19 hit, he downplayed it as a "little flu". He expressed skepticism about vaccines -- joking those who took it might "turn into a crocodile" -- and promoting unproven treatments.

The virus claimed more than 700,000 lives in Brazil, second only to the United States.

Twice divorced, Bolsonaro married his current wife Michelle, a fervent Evangelical Christian 27 years his junior, in 2007.

He reversed a vasectomy to have a child with Michelle and once described fathering his daughter Laura as a "moment of weakness" after having sired four sons in previous marriages.

Three of his sons are politicians.

One of them, federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, has been charged over his lobbying for US sanctions in a bid to sway the outcome of the coup trial against his father.

Z.Phillips--SFF