Bolsonaro’s backers invade the Brazilian Congress and the presidential palace

In a dramatic demonstration against President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva’s inauguration last week, Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters broke through police barricades and attacked the national Congress building on Sunday.

Lula da Silva responded by announcing a federal security intervention in Brasilia.

The rioters, whom Lula referred to as “fascists and fanatics,” would be dealt with “with the full power of the law,” he declared. He further stated in a speech delivered soon after the disturbances that the government’s intervention in Brazil would endure until January 31.

As a significant episode of political disturbance swiftly developed, social media images also revealed rioters attacking the neighbouring Planalto presidential palace and Brazil’s Supreme Court.

Authorities in Brasilia had roped off the area around the congressional building. An AFP photographer captured the moment hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters who reject the leftist Lula’s election triumph broke through, marched up ramps, and congregated on the modernist building’s roof.

A wave of individuals invaded the national Congress, many carrying Brazilian flags, as shown in shocking photos posted to social media that were reminiscent of the January 6, 2022, takeover of the US Capitol building by supporters of then-president Donald Trump, a Bolsonaro buddy.

The Senate and Chamber of Deputies of Brazil meet at this building to conduct legislative activity.

Protesters may be seen on the roof of the famous structure as well as on several of its surrounding lawns and public areas, including the nearby Palacio de Planalto.

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Security personnel deployed tear gas in an apparently futile attempt to disperse the protesters.

At the end of the year, Bolsonaro, who had been barely beaten by Lula in the second round of the US presidential election on October 30, departed Brazil and went to Florida, where Trump is now a resident.

“False election”
A review of veteran leftist Lula’s victory over Bolsonaro in the runoff election on October 30 was demanded, according to protester Sarah Lima, who spoke to AFP.

Lula, who entered office on Sunday, won the election by a slim margin of 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent. Bolsonaro, who departed for the US state of Florida on the second-to-last day of his tenure, claims that the Brazilian electoral officials are conspiring against him.

“We need to reestablish order after this fraudulent election,” declared Lima, a 27-year-old production engineer protesting with her infant twin children while donning the yellow jersey of the Brazilian national football team, a symbol Bolsonaro supporters have adopted as their own.

She said, “I’m here for history, for my daughters.”

Flavio Dino, the recently appointed Minister of Justice and Public Security, described the incursion as “a ludicrous attempt to impose (the demonstrators’) will by force.”

He declared on Twitter that “it will fail.”

The federal district government of Brazil is sending reinforcements, and the military on the ground is currently engaged in combat.

When the riots broke out, Lula, 77, was visiting a region recently devastated by floods in the city of Araraquara in southeast Brazil.

Since his election defeat, ardent Bolsonaro supporters have demonstrated in front of military installations across Brazil, demanding an army intervention to prevent Lula, who presided over the country from 2003 to 2010, from retaking office.