Calm has gradually returned to Brazil after major government headquarters were raided, prompting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to announce a federal security intervention in the capital, Brasilia, until the end of this month.
Da Silva, in a speech, described the supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed the country’s main power facilities in Brasilia as fascists and fanatics and said they would be punished with full force of law as well as their financiers. The Brazilian president said that several speeches by Bolsonaro encouraged his supporters to storm, noting that Brasilia had witnessed security deficiencies.
Bolsonaro disavows
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro recently rejected the accusations leveled against him by his successor, Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro said in comments on his Twitter account that peaceful demonstrations are part of democracy, considering any storming or looting of public buildings an outrage.
Brazilian media reported that the security forces had regained control of the congressional headquarters, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court, after they were stormed by thousands of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Hundreds of supporters of far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Sunday the main authorities’ headquarters in Brazil Brasiliathe Congress building, the Supreme Court and the Planalto presidential palace, causing a lot of damage, according to photos circulating on social networks.
These demonstrators are protesting against the return of leftist Iñácio Lula da Silva as president of Brazil last week, after he defeated Bolsonaro in the second round of the presidential elections on October 30.
The authorities cordoned off the area around the parliament building in Brasilia, but hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters who refuse to accept Lula da Silva’s victory in the presidential elections climbed into the building and gathered on its roof, an AFP photographer saw.
Security forces used tear gas, but their efforts failed to disperse the demonstrators.
Bolsonaro, who was narrowly defeated by Lula in the second round of the presidential elections on October 30, left Brazil at the end of the year, heading to Florida, where Trump is currently residing.
This comes a week after the inauguration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as President of Brazil for the third time, after he was sworn in before Congress in the capital, Brasilia.
A video obtained by Archyde.com from groups linked to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and footage from local stations showed that Bolsonaro supporters stormed a security forces barricade and stormed the headquarters of ministries and the Congress building in Brasilia.
CNN Brasil reported that protesters also stormed a parking garage at the Planalto presidential palace.
Pictures circulated showed the destruction of Bolsonaro’s supporters to Lula da Silva’s room in the presidential palace, as well as the destruction of parliamentarians’ offices, as demonstrators stood on the seats of the Senate.
In the context, some of Bolsonaro’s supporters demanded military intervention to annul the election results and dismiss Lula da Silva.
In turn, Minister of Justice and Public Security Flavio Dino said that what he described as a futile attempt will not prevail.
At least 150 Bolsonaro supporters have been arrested. And pictures of “CNN Brazil” showed his supporters, dressed in yellow and green, coming out in one row with their hands behind their backs from the presidential palace of Planalto, surrounded by police officers. Other photos show a bus full of arrested protesters leaving for a police station.
By nightfall in the Brazilian capital, the security forces seemed to be gradually regaining control of the situation, and water cannons were used to drive away the demonstrators.
The Brazilian police evacuated the headquarters of the National Congress on Sunday, several hours after it was stormed.
international reactions
In the context of international reactions, the US President said that the situation in Brasilia is disgraceful. Washington had condemned any attempt to undermine democracy in Brazil, and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said his country condemned any attempts to undermine democracy in Brazil.
Paris, for its part, issued a statement expressing its condemnation of the practice of violence against the institutions of Brazilian democracy. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support for the elected president and respect for institutions.
As for the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, he expressed, in a tweet, his absolute condemnation of the storming of the headquarters of the main authorities in Brazil.