By El Latino Newsroom
redaccion@latinocc.com
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro blamed hallucinations and a nervous breakdown for tampering with his ankle monitor, telling a judge on Sunday that a recent change in his medication may have triggered the episode.
The statement came during Bolsonaro’s first full day in jail after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered his pretrial detention on Saturday, citing him as a flight risk.
In September, Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced the 70-year-old far-right leader to 27 years in prison for attempting to stage a coup following his 2022 election loss to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to a court document released shortly after Sunday’s online hearing, Bolsonaro told assistant judge Luciana Sorrentino that he experienced “hallucinations” and suspected his ankle monitoring device was being used as a wiretap.
“He said he tried to uncover it, believing there was some wiretap in the device,” Sorrentino stated. “He also said he did not remember having a breakdown of this magnitude before and attributed it to a recent medication change.”
Bolsonaro further told the judge that he had not been sleeping well and was suffering from “a certain paranoia,” which drove him to investigate the monitoring device.
He claimed to have tampered with the ankle monitor in the presence of his daughter, older brother, and an aide, though none of them reportedly noticed.
De Moraes was informed that the device was violated at 12:08 a.m. Saturday. The arrest order followed hours later.
The court session also served to assess the legality of Bolsonaro’s detention.
His legal team argued that his health should warrant a return to house arrest, a request De Moraes has previously denied.
The judge did authorize visits from Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle, who was out of Brasília when her husband was taken into custody.
President Lula made his first public remarks on the case during the G20 summit in South Africa.
“The court ruled, that’s decided. Everyone knows what he did,” Lula said.
Outside federal police headquarters, the arrest drew mixed reactions. Bolsonaro supporters protested, demanding the removal of both Lula and De Moraes. Meanwhile, critics of the former president celebrated the decision.
VENEZUELA
A growing number of international airlines canceled flights to Venezuela over the weekend after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a cautionary alert to pilots citing heightened military activity and deteriorating security conditions in the South American country.
As of Sunday, six airlines, TAP Air Portugal, LATAM, Avianca, Iberia, Gol, and Caribbean Airlines, had suspended operations indefinitely, according to Marisela de Loaiza, president of the Airlines Association in Venezuela.
Turkish Airlines also canceled its flights to the country between Nov. 24 and Nov. 28.
The suspensions follow an FAA advisory released Friday warning that unspecified threats could pose “a potential risk to aircraft at all altitudes,” including planes on the ground and those during takeoff and landing in Venezuelan airspace.
Reacting to the disruptions, Colombian President Gustavo Petro called for regular air travel to continue between Latin America and the rest of the world.
“Countries are not blocked, because blocking countries means blocking people, and that is a crime against humanity,” Petro said Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.
The U.S. warning comes amid rising tensions between the Trump administration and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom Washington does not recognize as the legitimate leader of the country.
Maduro faces narcoterrorism charges in the United States.
In recent weeks, the U.S. military has increased its presence in the region.
Bomber training flights have reached the Venezuelan coast, and the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, along with several destroyers, was deployed to the Caribbean, marking the largest U.S. naval force in the area in generations.
The Trump administration has also intensified maritime operations against suspected drug trafficking routes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Since early September, U.S. strikes on small boats have reportedly killed more than 80 people.
The FAA advisory did not detail the nature of the threats, but aviation analysts say the combination of political instability, increased military exercises, and strained U.S.-Venezuelan relations have made the airspace riskier for civilian carriers.
As diplomatic tensions escalate, travelers are left facing limited flight options and growing uncertainty over the safety of air travel in and out of Venezuela.
