The security of President-elect Lula will be ensured by a 100% mobilization of the police, assured his team on Tuesday, five days before his inauguration and after an attempted bomb attack was discovered in the Brazilian capital.
Sunday “the police forces of the Federal District [de Brasilia] will be 100% mobilized to guarantee the safety not only of the president, but also of foreign delegations and the population,” Flavio Dino, his future Minister of Public Security, told the press.
The plans for the ceremonies “have not been modified”, the minister continued, when asked about the possibility that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would descend the Esplanade of the Ministries in a closed car instead of the traditional Rolls Royce convertible .
The decision “will be taken in due time”, said Mr. Dino, during a press conference attended by the future Minister of Defense and the governor of Brasilia, in charge of the local police.
The induction ceremony will be held in a “safe and peaceful” manner, Dino added, as Brasilia prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of people.
Many sympathizers of the president-elect on the left have expressed on social networks their fear of unrest or attacks, especially since the discovery last Saturday of an explosive device in a tank truck near Brasilia airport. Activated, the device did not explode.
The man who had dropped him off was arrested and wanted, according to his statements to the police published by the local press, “to cause chaos” and “the intervention of the armed forces” in order to “prevent the establishment of communism in Brazil “.
An impressive number of weapons were found in this sympathizer of outgoing far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
Radical Bolsonarists blocked roads and demonstrated outside barracks across the country after Lula’s narrow victory in the Oct. 30 ballot.
Two months later, there are still demonstrations, in front of certain barracks, of the army of Bolsonarists who do not recognize Lula’s victory and demand military intervention.
Mr. Dino assured that “small terrorist or extremist groups” would not be enough to undermine Brazilian democracy.
Bolsonaro, who has never congratulated Lula and seems to have sunk into depression, has hardly appeared in public since his presidential defeat. He did not condemn various incidents caused by his supporters.
It is unlikely that he will gird Lula with the presidential sash on January 1, as institutional tradition dictates. And the Brazilian media speculated on a possible departure Wednesday of the outgoing president – officially in office until December 31 – for the United States.