After a swarm of Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters rushed the capital’s centre of power on Sunday, causing havoc, Brazilian security forces regained control of Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court.
Security forces in Brasilia, who were initially overwhelmed, fought back rioters who ran amok through the halls of power until they were finally subdued using tear gas, stun grenades, and water cannons in scenes eerily reminiscent of the January 6, 2021 invasion of the US Capitol building by supporters of then-president Donald Trump.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a veteran leftist who was just elected president of Brazil after a close race in October’s contentious and heated elections, called the invasions a “fascist” attack.
Meanwhile, in a tweet, the far-right Bolsonaro denounced “pillaging and assaults of public buildings.” The “Tropical Trump” politician, however, refuted Lula’s assertion that he instigated the attacks and defended the freedom for “peaceful protests.”
Lula signed a document announcing a federal intervention in Brasilia while he was in a city in the southeast called Araraquara. This gave his government special control over the local police force so that law and order could be restored in the capital.
The 77-year-old veteran socialist who entered office a week ago claimed that “these fascist fanatics have done something never before seen in the history of this country.”
We’ll track down the perpetrators of this vandalism, and we’ll use every available legal means to prosecute them.
The president subsequently took a flight back to Brasilia, where he toured the looted facilities and oversaw the response, according to TV Globo in Brazil.
There have reportedly been 170 arrests by the police.
TV pictures showed police guiding Bolsonaro supporters in a single file down the slope leading from the Planalto presidential palace, the same one Lula climbed a week earlier at his inauguration.
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The Senate security service reported that 30 people had been taken into custody there.
Police and journalists were attacked.
Chaos broke out after a sea of demonstrators covered in the green and yellow of the Brazilian flag and military-style camouflage rushed into Three Powers Square in Brasilia. They invaded the floor of Congress, vandalised the Supreme Court building, and climbed the ramp to the Planalto.
Using the sloped speaker’s dais on the Senate floor as a slide, rioters vandalised politicians’ desks and screamed insults at the absent lawmakers as they streamed inside the Congress building through broken windows and doors.
Brazilian news outlets said that protesters broke into the buildings and damaged art, antiques, furniture, and decorations.
In one video, a police officer was seen being pulled off his horse and assaulted by onlookers.
Police used tear gas to try to disperse the rioters after creating a security perimeter around the area, but it didn’t work at first.
At least five reporters were attacked, according to a union for journalists, including an AFP photographer who was battered by demonstrators and had his equipment taken.
Since Bolsonaro won the election, his most loyal supporters have been holding protests in front of military bases and calling for the military to stop Lula from taking office.
The government of Lula promised to find and jail the people who planned and paid for the attacks.
Ibaneis Rocha, the governor of Brasilia, fired Anderson Torres, who had served as the minister of justice under Bolsonaro.
According to the attorney general’s office, Torres “and all other public officials accountable for acts and omissions” contributing to the unrest have been named in a request to the Supreme Court for arrest warrants.
Also, it asked the high court for permission to use “all public security forces” to retake federal buildings and stop large-scale protests against the government.
