On Sunday, protesters swarmed into Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Brazilian authorities vowed Monday to protect democracy and punish thousands of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro supporters who stormed and trashed the country’s highest seats of power in a scene eerily similar to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurgency at the United States Capitol.
On Sunday, protesters swarmed into Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace. Many people want the Brazilian army to restore far-right Bolsonaro to power and depose newly elected leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to the justice ministry’s press office, police were breaking up a pro-Bolsonaro encampment outside a military building on Monday and detaining about 1,200 people there.
Lula and the heads of the Supreme Court, Senate, and Lower House also signed a letter Monday condemning terrorism and vandalism and pledging legal action.
According to Justice Minister Flávio Dino, police have begun tracking down those who paid for the buses that transported protesters to the capital. At a news conference late Sunday, Brazil’s minister of institutional relations stated that the buildings would be inspected for evidence such as fingerprints and images in order to hold people accountable, and that the rioters appeared to intend to spark similar uprisings across the country.
“They will not be able to destroy Brazilian democracy. “We have to say it clearly, with firmness and conviction,” Dino said. “We will not accept the path of criminality to carry out political fights in Brazil. “A criminal is treated as such.”
JRioters dressed in the national flag’s green and yellow broke windows, toppled furniture, and threw computers and printers to the ground on Sunday. They pierced seven holes in a massive Emiliano Di Cavalcanti painting at the presidential palace and completely destroyed other works of art.
They destroyed the U-shaped table where Supreme Court justices meet, ripped a door off one of the justices’ offices, and vandalised an iconic statue outside the court. The interiors of the monumental structures were left in ruins.
The arrests made on Monday were in addition to the 300 made on Sunday while caught in the act.
However, despite the arrival of more than 100 buses, police were noticeably slow to respond, leaving many to wonder whether authorities simply ignored numerous warnings, underestimated the protesters’ strength, or were somehow complicit.
According to public prosecutors in the capital, local security forces were at best negligent. The regional governor was temporarily suspended by a Supreme Court justice. Another justice chastised authorities for failing to respond quickly to emerging neofascism in Brazil.
Bolsonaro, who has gone to Florida since his electoral defeat on Oct. 30, has been stoking belief among his ardent supporters that the electronic voting system was prone to fraud — despite never presenting any evidence. Eduardo Bolsonaro, his lawmaker son, met with former US President Donald Trump, Trump’s longtime ally Steve Bannon, and his senior campaign adviser, Jason Miller.
Brazil’s election results — the closest in over three decades — were quickly recognised by politicians across the political spectrum, including some Bolsonaro allies and dozens of governments. And, to almost everyone’s surprise, Bolsonaro quickly faded from view. He neither conceded defeat nor declared outright fraud, despite the fact that he and his party filed a request to overturn millions of votes, which was quickly denied.
Since 1996, Brazilians have used electronic voting, which security experts believe is less secure than hand-marked paper ballots because it leaves no auditable paper trail. Brazil’s system, on the other hand, is closely scrutinised, and neither domestic authorities nor international observers have found evidence of it being used to commit fraud.
Nonetheless, supporters of Bolsonaro refused to accept the results. They have blocked roads and remained camped outside military buildings, pleading with the military to intervene. Dino, the justice minister, described the encampments as terrorist breeding grounds. Protests were mostly peaceful, but isolated threats, such as a bomb discovered on a fuel truck bound for Brasilia’s airport, raised security concerns.
Bolsonaro flew to the United States two days before Lula’s inauguration on January 1, taking up temporary residence in Orlando. Many Brazilians were relieved that, while he declined to participate in the power transition, his absence allowed it to take place without incident.
