Flaunting an Ankle Tag, Brazil's Bolsonaro Joins an Unusual Club
It was a bulky, black ankle monitor. Brazil's Supreme Court last week ordered it attached to Mr. Bolsonaro, who is facing charges of staging a coup after the 2022 elections, among other crimes.
Mr. Bolsonaro, deemed a flight risk by the court, thus became the latest high profile figure ordered to wear electronic surveillance monitors. (Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, for example, was ordered to wear one after being convicted of corruption last year.)
The devices, which track the movements of people under house arrest or other restrictions, can bring their wearers unwanted attention. But Mr. Bolsonaro, who was also ordered to stay at home most hours and to stay away from foreign embassies, seemed to have no qualms brandishing his ankle tag, even as he called it a symbol of indignity.
In that, he was not alone, joining an unusual cast of those who seem to embrace, or even revel in, the symbolism of ankle tags, mug shots and the spectacle of criminal prosecution.
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