Brazil’s Supreme Court Places Bolsonaro Under House Arrest

Former President Jair Bolsonaro, whose case has partly motivated President Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, was ordered to remain under house arrest as he awaited trial.

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the house arrest of Jair Bolsonaro, tightening the leash on the former president accused of overseeing a plot to cling to power after losing the 2022 election.

The new measures threatened to escalate the biggest diplomatic crisis in decades between the United States and Brazil, set off by President Trump’s decision to defend Mr. Bolsonaro and slap 50 percent tariffs on some goods from Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, unless it dropped the case against the former president.

Mr. Bolsonaro, who was ordered last month to wear an ankle monitor while he awaited trial, had already been told to remain at home most hours, stay away from foreign embassies and keep off social media platforms.

In the new ruling on Monday, Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice who is overseeing his case, said that Mr. Bolsonaro had violated some of those terms, indirectly using social media through the accounts of his allies and sons.

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