Bolsonaro Allies Criticize Supreme Court Justice Over Son’s Visit Ban

Allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro criticized a decision by Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) to suspend visits by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro to his father, according to single-source reporting from O Globo.

Moraes issued the decision on Monday, July 13, after Flávio, a senator from Rio de Janeiro for the Liberal Party (PL), posted a video over the weekend announcing that he would read a letter written by the former president. Hours later, the senator read the full text in a social media broadcast.

The Court’s Reasoning

Moraes said the episode violated a prior court order barring Bolsonaro from using social media “directly or through third parties.” According to O Globo, the justice argued that Flávio used the family visit to obtain a document later disclosed publicly online, bypassing the restriction imposed on the former president.

In the letter, Bolsonaro urged supporters to unite around Flávio’s pre-candidacy for president and described his son as his “spokesman” and “the best option” to free Brazil from corruption, violence and impoverishment. Moraes said Flávio’s own public statements showed that the message had been produced by Bolsonaro for public release.

The decision adds another legal constraint around Bolsonaro’s political communication at a moment when his allies are already framing court restrictions as interference in the right’s internal political organization. O Globo’s report did not include a response from Moraes beyond the reasoning cited in the decision.

Allies Invoke Lula

Bolsonaro supporters responded by comparing the case with former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), Brazil’s main center-left party. In 2018, while Lula was jailed at the Federal Police headquarters in Curitiba, a letter he wrote was read publicly to announce his approval of Fernando Haddad as the PT’s presidential candidate.

Senator Rogério Marinho, also from the PL, called Moraes’s order “authoritarian” and “disproportionate” in a note posted on social media, according to O Globo. He argued that the decision effectively tried to make the former president incommunicado and described it as interference in politics.

Carlos Bolsonaro, a former city councilman and another son of the former president, shared the news and later posted an article about Lula’s 2018 letter. The comparison became a central argument among Bolsonaro allies, who said similar political correspondence had not led to comparable restrictions in Lula’s case.

Political Reactions

Senator Sergio Moro, the former Lava Jato judge who later entered politics with the PL, said Lula had received 572 visits while in prison, including 21 from Haddad, then the PT presidential candidate. Moro said he had never considered restricting Lula’s right to visits or correspondence.

Federal deputy Caroline de Toni, also from the PL, said on X that basic guarantees must be respected and questioned how far political disputes should be allowed to interfere with family relationships and individual rights.

The dispute highlights how court-imposed limits on Bolsonaro’s public communication continue to fuel conflict between the former president’s camp and parts of Brazil’s judiciary. For Bolsonaro allies, the suspension is another example of overreach. For Moraes, as summarized by O Globo, the issue was narrower: whether a banned political figure used a family visit to send a public message through a third party.