Brazil’s long-running effort to hold powerful politicians to account claimed another landmark on 25 April 2025, when former head-of-state Fernando Collor de Mello, 75, was taken into federal custody in the coastal city of Maceió. A police statement said Collor was arrested at 4 a.m. while en-route to Brasília and transferred to a secure wing of the Baldomero Cavalcanti penitentiary to start an eight-year-and-ten-month sentence for corruption and money-laundering. Reuters
The conviction, handed down by Brazil’s Supreme Court in 2023, found that Collor — then a senator for Alagoas — pocketed roughly 20 million reais (≈ US $3.5 million) between 2010 and 2014. Prosecutors proved he smoothed government contracts between fuel distributor BR Distribuidora (a former Petrobras subsidiary) and construction firm UTC Engenharia in exchange for the kickbacks — one of scores of schemes unmasked by the vast “Operation Car Wash” probe. AP News
Justice Alexandre de Moraes rejected the last of Collor’s procedural appeals late Thursday, condemning defence tactics that “merely delayed the inevitable.” Under Court precedent, once such appeals are deemed frivolous a defendant must enter custody immediately, even while further petitions are pending. The Guardian
Collor’s attorneys say they will seek house arrest on medical grounds, but the Supreme Court must first ratify the detention order in full session next week. Reuters
A pattern of presidents in the dock
Collor is the fourth of Brazil’s seven post-dictatorship presidents to face prison or impeachment:
- Jair Bolsonaro now awaits trial over an alleged coup plot after losing the 2022 election.
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spent 580 days in jail before his convictions were annulled.
- Dilma Rousseff was removed from office in 2016 on budget-manipulation charges.
The run of high-profile prosecutions underscores both the reach of Brazil’s anti-graft institutions and the ongoing volatility of its politics. ReutersAP News
From youthful reformer to inmate #001
Elected in 1989 as the nation’s first popular-vote president after military rule, Collor famously campaigned to “sweep away corruption.” He resigned in 1992 amid a separate bribery scandal, re-entered public life as a senator in 2007, and ultimately became entangled in the same influence-peddling he once decried.
His downfall, analysts say, delivers a symbolic boost to Operation Car Wash after years of political pushback — and signals to younger lawmakers that no office confers permanent immunity.
