Former President and Brazilian Generals Arrested for Attempted Coup for the First Time in Brazilian History

The former President of Brazil, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, has been definitively sentenced to 27 years in prison by the Supreme Federal Court on the afternoon of this Wednesday (25), in Brasília, the Federal Capital ( where the military resided). There, the former parliamentarian and retired captain of the Brazilian Army will initially be held in a Federal Police superintendent’s office., There are no further appeals available for the defendants in this case.

Former President Jair Bolsonaro had already been preventively arrested by the Brazilian Federal Police at sunrise last Saturday, November 22, at his residence in a luxury condominium in the capital of Brazil, Brasília. The former president attempted to tamper with the electronic ankle bracelet that monitored him, using a welding iron, which led to his preventive arrest and the subsequent suspension of the house arrest he had been serving since August 2025, due to the alleged escape risk. Until then, the convicted could appeal the conviction in the process, but the deadline ended this Tuesday.

In addition to the former president, Generals Augusto Heleno and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, participants in the former Bolsonaro government, will also begin serving their definitive sentences (21 and 19 years, respectively) in a military barracks. Admiral Almir Garnier will be held in a military radio station of the Brazilian Navy. General Braga Neto, who ran for vice president in the 2022 elections, had already been in preventive custody for 11 months in a barracks in Rio de Janeiro, where he will remain. Former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres, who is not military, will go to the Papuda prison in Brasília.

The definitive arrest order was issued by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the rapporteur of the judicial process that had already sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro and others involved in an attempted coup at the end of 2022. At that time, Bolsonaro and the other convicted did not accept the electoral results of that year, which indicated the victory of the current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the unelection of thenPresident Jair Bolsonaro. It was the first time in Brazilian political history that a sitting president was unable to be re-elected to continue government. 

It is also the first time in Brazilian history that military personnel have been convicted for attempted coups. Brazilian historians point to up to nine coups since the end of the Brazilian monarchy. It should be noted that, whilst there is controversy among scholars regarding the counting of coups against the Republic, no fewer than nine coups have been cited.. In the 136 years since the abolishment of the monarchy, seven coups were successful, each with varying degrees of military participation.

In recent interviews with The Washington Post, three researchers paid attention to the unprecedented nature of the punishment of Brazilian military personnel. According to historian Lilia Schwarcz from the University of São Paulo, “Brazil carries two pacts of silence: the silence about slavery and the violence it produced, and the silence about the military. That’s why this case is so symbolic.” Carlos Fico, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, emphasized the aforementioned numerical issue concerning historical coups and, despite the high number, the absence of punishment: “For decades, I have studied more than 12 coups and coup attempts, and all resulted in impunity or amnesty. This time will be different…” Finally, political scientist Matias Spektor from FGV (Getúlio Vargas Foundation) points out the seriousness of the leniency against public officials who have the right to use weapons: “The country has never imprisoned anyone who had access to state weaponry. This is revolutionary.”