BRAZIL’S EX-PRESIDENT COLLOR DE MELLO IMPRISONED FOR CORRUPTION
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Brazil’s former president, Fernando Collor de Mello, was arrested on Friday and taken into custody to begin serving a sentence of nearly nine years for corruption and money laundering.
His imprisonment represents another major downfall among Brazil’s political elite.
Collor de Mello, who was the country’s first democratically elected leader following years of military rule, resigned from office in 1992 during an impeachment process linked to bribery accusations.
Now, more than three decades later, Brazil’s former president Fernando Collor de Mello is facing imprisonment over separate corruption charges connected to the wide-reaching “Car Wash” scandal.
The 75-year-old was arrested in Maceió, the northeastern city where he previously served as governor and senator, according to a federal police source. He is currently being held in a private cell within a special wing of the Baldomero Cavalcanti de Oliveira prison.
In 2023, Collor de Mello was convicted of accepting 20 million reais (about $3.5 million) in bribes between 2010 and 2014.
Prosecutors said he used his position as a senator to improperly secure contracts between a construction firm and BR Distribuidora, formerly part of the state-run oil company Petrobras.
On Thursday, Brazil’s Supreme Court rejected Collor de Mello’s last-minute effort to overturn his arrest warrant. His lawyers claimed he was preparing to surrender voluntarily in Brasília when police arrested him before dawn.
Collor de Mello now joins a growing list of Brazilian leaders who have faced major legal consequences, with four of the country’s seven presidents since the end of military rule in 1985 either impeached, convicted, or imprisoned.
Most recently, former president Jair Bolsonaro was ordered to stand trial over allegations he plotted a coup following his 2022 election loss.
Meanwhile, current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who served two previous terms and returned to office in 2023, was himself jailed for corruption during the “Car Wash” investigation, although his conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
The “Car Wash” probe exposed a vast web of political corruption, revealing that major construction firms paid billions in bribes to secure public contracts across Latin America.
Collor de Mello rose to fame in the late 1980s as a youthful, reformist outsider, defeating Lula in the landmark 1989 presidential election. His campaign promised sweeping political and economic change, energizing a nation eager for renewal after years of dictatorship.
However, his presidency quickly unraveled. Amid mounting allegations of corruption, Congress launched impeachment proceedings, leading to his resignation in 1992 before the process could be completed
After a period of political ineligibility, Collor de Mello staged a comeback, winning election to the Senate for Alagoas in 2006, a position he held until 2022. In his later political career, he aligned himself with right-wing figures, campaigning for Bolsonaro’s failed re-election bid in 2022 — only to see his old rival, Lula, reclaim the presidency
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