The former president, 76, maintains his eloquence when receiving visitors in the apartment in Maceió (AL) where he has been under house arrest since May 1, 2025.
Always well dressed, sometimes even wearing a suit and tie, he appears calm and complains about having to stay at home, especially due to isolation, as he has few friends and they need court authorization to visit him. They also have the custom of giving gifts to visitors.
by order of the minister of the (Federal Supreme Court), at Zumbi dos Palmares International Airport, from where he was taken to the Federal Police headquarters in Alagoas and, later, to the Baldomero Cavalcante prison, where the director’s office was located.
At the time, lawyers reported that the former agent is elderly and is treating Parkinson’s disease, severe sleep apnea and bipolar affective disorder. After six days in prison, Moraes granted the benefit of house arrest.
in which he will have served 17 months of the 8 years and 10 months to which he was sentenced.
The arrest was due to the process in which Collor was convicted of receiving bribes from a scheme at BR Distribuidora, a subsidiary of Petrobras. He has always denied the accusations.
The criminal action is derived from the . Proofs found in the money changer’s office, in addition to statements from employees of the operation, were listed as evidence.
The case was treated as a prelude to what would be the arrest of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) months later. The former first lady met with Moraes in January and reportedly asked.
also using an electronic ankle bracelet.
They say it’s been calm, without major changes to the building’s routine, which has few employees and a remote reception.
The former president lives at the address with his wife, Caroline Serejo Medeiros Collor de Mello, and the couple’s two youngest daughters stay at the property when they are in Brazil.
Collor’s three eldest sons, Arnon, Joaquim and live in other residences. Arnon and Joaquim, in fact, do not live in Alagoas.
James and Caroline took control of TV Gazeta. She is a partner, while he is considered an administrator.
For family members,
The current address is a 600 square meter penthouse on the seafront in a prime area of . According to the opinion contained in the process at the Labor Court, the property has a balcony, living room, office, gallery, dining room, toilet, wine cellar, three suites (one master with closet), as well as a swimming pool, covered and uncovered terraces and a bar.
as with Bolsonaro.
Collor can only leave his apartment for health reasons, during previously informed medical appointments. If you have to leave due to an emergency, you have 48 hours to provide information about what happened. His passport was suspended and the creation of a new document was prohibited.
The former president’s defense was sought, but he preferred not to comment.
Over the course of a year in prison, the former president had 24 visit authorizations granted by the STF, covering 23 visitors on specific dates from September to April.
One of the requests, for a meeting with four people on December 29th, was split up, with two people on the 28th and another two on the 29th.
Furthermore, the minister authorized the entry of a physiotherapist for a period of six months to carry out treatment, starting in May 2025.
Of the 23 visits, 13 were last year and 10 this year. Among them are businesspeople, politicians, such as the federal deputy (Solidariedade-SP), lawyers and journalists. The president of the Legislative Assembly of Alagoas, Marcelo Victor (MDB), and his father, former state deputy Gervásio Raimundo, are included in the visits authorized by Moraes.
The visit of former government minister Michel Temer and former PSDB president Bruno Araújo and his wife was also authorized.
Among the visitors were also whistleblowers from the construction company Odebrecht.
On June 19, the former president’s last sister, Leda Maria de Melo Coimbra, who was 83 years old, died.
Last October, between 9am on May 2nd and 9pm on May 3rd, under penalty of returning to prison. The defense argued that the termination occurred involuntarily, resulting from truncated information passed on to Collor.
According to Luciana Santana, professor of political science at UFAL (Federal University of Alagoas), the arrest occurred at a time when the former president was already showing a consistent loss of political relevance, with a low capacity for articulation and reduced influence in Alagoas.
The emptying, says the professor, had been taking shape in the last years of her term in the Senate and became more intense after a frustrated attempt to return to the state government. He applied for but only came in third place.
For the researcher, the electoral defeat consolidated a situation of political isolation, by highlighting the difficulty of mobilizing and rebuilding electoral capital.
Despite similarities with Bolsonaro’s case regarding house arrest, Santana sees different situations. “Unlike Collor, Bolsonaro has heirs in politics. He has a presidential son, Carlos Bolsonaro, Eduardo, Michelle herself. So he has an incomparable political estate in both cases”, he explains.
