President visits the site of the insurrection and orders the federal government to withdraw police from the capital Brasilia as extremists refuse to settle for his presidency
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva toured the remains of his presidential palace after a normal day of political violence in the capital, Brasilia, in which thousands of far-right extremists broke out through the country’s democratic institutions in a failed attempt to overthrow his week. Long government.
The huge attack by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro is a staggering security breach that does not compare to the invasion of the U. S. Capitol. The U. S. was released on Jan. 6 by Donald Trump’s supporters in 2021.
Lula was not in Brasilia at the time of the attack, but delivered an angry speech in which he accused Bolsonaro of being guilty of the chaos and vowed that “anyone involved will be punished. “
Calling those who participated in the attacks “vandals, neo-fascists and fanatics,” Lula ordered a federal intervention in the capital, attacking the police under the direction of the central government.
“What we are witnessing is a terrorist attack,” news anchor Erick Bang announced on GloboNews television when news of the unrest broke. “The 3 buildings were invaded by coup terrorists. “
“It’s much worse than what happened on Capitol Hill,” former Supreme Court Justice Marco Aurelio Mello told O Globo newspaper Sunday night after police made at least 300 arrests similar to the attack.
Shocking video footage showed pro-Bolsonaro activists running down the ramp leading to the Palácio do Planalto, the presidential offices, walking through construction halls and smashing the nearby Supreme Court, whose windows had been shattered.
Videos posted on social media showed fires inside the congressional building. Furniture smashed and thrown away, pieces stolen from the presidential palace and the Supreme Court, and in some places, sprinklers appeared to spray the rooms.
“They throw chairs out the window,” GloboNews commentator Eliane Cantanhêde said in bewilderment. “They destroy public buildings. “
Lula, a veteran of the left, was sworn in as Brazil’s new president last Sunday in celebrations attended by thousands of Brazilians.
But thousands of pro-Bolsonaro extremists have refused to settle for Lula’s narrow victory in October’s election, spending the past few weeks camping out outside military bases across the country and calling for a military coup.
Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain whose main foreign best friend, Trump, flew in from Brazil on the eve of Lula’s inauguration and is recently in Florida. He responded to Sunday’s events with a brief series of social media posts protecting his governing record while claiming the invasion of public buildings had crossed the line.
“Peaceful protests, within the framework of the law, are part of democracy,” he wrote on Twitter. “However, depredations and invasions of public buildings like those of today, as well as those practiced by the left in 2013 and 2017, are exceptions to the rule. “
Bolsonaro refrained from openly condemning the crowd and instead denounced Lula’s claims that he is responsible.
“Throughout my tenure, I have remained within the 4 lines of the constitution, respecting and protecting laws, democracy, transparency and our sacred freedom. In addition, I reject the baseless accusations attributed to me through the Chief Executive existing in Brazil.
Military police in Brasilia were conspicuous by their absence on Sunday and crowds faced little opposition as they marched toward the 3 branches of government.
On Sunday night, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered that Ibaneis Rocha, the pro-Bolsonaro governor of the Federal District, where Brasilia is located, be expelled from his workplace for 90 days amid outrage over the government failing to save him from the attack.
De Moraes wrote that the attacks “could have occurred with the acquiescence, or even direct involvement, of intelligence and public security authorities. “
Lula said security forces had shown “incompetence, bad religion or malice” and promised swift action.
By late afternoon, the government gave the impression of having recovered some of the buildings and police said another 300 people had been arrested. Television footage showed dozens of others handcuffed and liars on the ground, watched by law enforcement officers.
Lula’s reaction came hours after a pro-Bolsonaro crowd marched 8 kilometers from the army headquarters in Brasilia to the center of Brazilian politics, the Plaza of the Three Powers, seat of the Supreme Court, the presidential palace and Congress.
The activists, many wearing the yellow and green Brazilian flag bearing a symbol of Bolsonaro’s far-right movement, broke police lines around 3 p. m. and pounced on the ramp leading to the Congress building.
Soon after, another prominent Lula ally, Andre Janones, shared images of dozens of radicals inside the Palácio do Planalto, the presidential offices where last week’s inauguration rite took place.
“Terrorists have invaded the Planalto,” Janones tweeted.
Observers have spent months warning that Bolsonaro’s hardliners could launch a South American version of the U. S. Capitol invasion. The U. S. hopes of reversing Lula’s victory. undermine Brazil’s respectable electronic voting system around the world.
“Bolsonaro and his team have been very attentive to what happened on January 6 to understand why a sitting president failed in his efforts to overturn the election results,” former US ambassador to Brazil Thomas Shannon told The Guardian. Choice of the year.
The weeks leading up to Lula’s inauguration on January 1 saw two transparent signs of violence to come.
On December 13, radicals attempted to tear down the federal police headquarters in Brasilia, setting buses and cars on fire as they moved through the city. effort to provoke riots that could justify a military coup.