Police in Brazil are looking into a possible bomb threat before Lula takes office

The federal district’s security agency reported on Tuesday that police in Brasilia, Brazil’s capital, were looking into a possible bomb threat in the city’s hotel zone, near to where President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was staying before his inauguration on January 1.

A Reuters witness reported hearing helicopters and sirens coming from the hotel Lula was staying in. The military police in Brasilia say that the bomb squad was called when a backpack was found.

Since Lula beat the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in October, Brasilia has become more tense. This was the most contentious election in Brazil in a generation.

On December 24, Brasilia police claimed to have thwarted a bomb plot by detaining a man who was connected to an assembly of Bolsonaro election sceptics who had camped outside the army headquarters and had been calling on the military to annul Lula’s victory.

George Washington Sousa, who admitted to building the bomb and planning its detonation with other campers, said that the goal of the weapon was to “provoke a military intervention… to stop the installation of communism in Brazil.”

READ ALSO: Bolsonaro challenge is rejected by Brazil’s electoral court

A group from the army camp tried to storm the federal police headquarters in December after an indigenous leader who supported Bolsonaro was arrested for making threats against democracy.

According to new Justice Minister Flavio Dino, the political unrest in the city has led Lula’s team to tighten security measures for Sunday’s inauguration.

According to Dino, the transition team will ask the Supreme Court to temporarily ban the possession of weapons in Brasilia on Tuesday.

The number of registered gun owners has increased sixfold to almost 700,000 since Bolsonaro started relaxing gun rules in 2019.

Extreme Bolsonaro supporters who have registered as gun owners to stockpile weapons are starting to be seen as a threat to public safety.

Dino told reporters, “We will urge Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is in charge of the Supreme Court’s investigation into anti-democratic conduct, to suspend the carrying of firearms in the Federal District between tomorrow [Wednesday] and Jan. 2 or 3.”

The idea is that even people with permits will have to follow this court-ordered suspension, making it illegal to carry a handgun during this time.

(Reuters)