Following Trump: Hundreds arrested as Bolsonaro supporters ransack Brazil's top govt offices
- 09 Jan 2023
Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his election defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace in the capital on Sunday, a week after the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Thousands of demonstrators bypassed security barricades, climbed on roofs, smashed windows and invaded all three buildings, which were believed to be largely vacant and sit on Brasilia's vast Three Powers Square.
Some of them called for a military intervention to either restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power, or oust Lula from the presidency.
The incident recalled the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Political analysts have warned for months that a similar storming was a possibility in Brazil, given that Bolsonaro has sown doubt about the reliability of the nation's electronic voting system without any evidence. The results were recognised as legitimate by politicians from across the spectrum, including some Bolsonaro allies, as well as dozens of foreign governments.
Unlike the 2021 attack in the US, it is likely that few officials were working in the Brazilian Congress and Supreme Court on a Sunday.
In a news conference from Sao Paulo state, Lula said Bolsonaro had encouraged the uprising by those he termed "fascist fanatics,” and he read a freshly signed decree for the federal government to take control of security in the federal district.
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"There is no precedent for what they did and these people need to be punished,” Lula said.
TV channel Globo News showed protesters wearing the green and yellow colors of the national flag that also have come to symbolize the nation's conservative movement, and were adopted by Bolsonaro's supporters.
The former president has repeatedly sparred with Supreme Court justices, and the room where they convene was trashed by the rioters. They sprayed fire hoses inside the Congress building and ransacked offices at the presidential palace. Windows were broken in all of the buildings.
Bolsonaro, who flew to Florida ahead of Lula’s inauguration, has not commented on Sunday's events.
Police fired tear gas in their efforts to recover the buildings, and were shown on television in the late afternoon marching protesters down a ramp from the presidential palace with their hands secured behind their backs. By early evening, control of the buildings had been reestablished. Police said on Twitter that roughly 100 people had been arrested, and officers were firing more tear gas to drive lingering protesters from the area.
But with the damage already done, many in Brazil were questioning how the police had ignored abundant warnings, were unprepared or were somehow complicit.
Lula said at his news conference there was "incompetence or bad faith″ on the part of police, and that they had been likewise complacent when Bolsonaro supporters rioted in the capital weeks ago. He promised those officers would be punished and expelled from the corps.
US President Joe Biden told reporters that the riots in Brazil were "outrageous.” His national security adviser Jake Sullivan went a step further on Twitter and said the U.S. "condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil.”
Biden later tweeted that he looked forward to continuing to work with Lula, calling the riots an "assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil.”
Associated Press