Hundreds of supporters of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro invaded Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in Brasília on Sunday, a week after the inauguration of left-wing president Lula, whose election they refuse.
A veritable human tide of demonstrators dressed in yellow and green stormed the country’s main places of power in Brasília, AFP noted, impressive images reminiscent of the invasion of the Capitol in Washington in January 2021.
On social networks, we can see videos showing damaged offices of parliamentarians or demonstrators standing on the seats of the Senate hemicycle.
The damage seems considerable, in these buildings which are treasures of modern architecture and are full of works of art.
The area near the Three Powers Square, where the Presidential Palace of Planalto, the Supreme Court and the Congress meet, had however been cordoned off by the authorities, but the Bolsonarists managed to break the security cordons.
The police, who seemed completely overwhelmed, tried, in vain, to repel them with tear gas.
“This absurd attempt to impose a will by force will not prevail. The government of the Federal District (of Brasília) will send reinforcements and the forces we have are acting,” said Flavio Dino, Minister of Justice and Public Security, on Twitter.
On Saturday, Mr. Dino had authorized the deployment of agents of the National Force, a special police force sometimes sent to the various states in the event of a threat to law and order.
Request for military intervention
“We have to restore order after this fraudulent election,” said Sarah Lima, a 27-year-old pro-Bolsonaro engineer from Goianesia, 300 km from Brasília, to an AFP journalist present on the spot.
Lula, 77, was absent from Brasília on Sunday: he went to Araraquara, a city in the state of Sao Paulo (southeast) devastated by floods at the end of the year.
Bolsonarists have already been demonstrating in front of military barracks since the narrow defeat of the outgoing far-right president against Lula on October 30.
They demanded the intervention of the army to prevent the latter from returning to power for a third term, after those from 2003 to 2010. Some of them also blocked roads for more than a week after the election. .
Jair Bolsonaro, who never congratulated Lula on his election and shunned his inauguration, left Brazil two days before the end of his mandate and is in Florida, United States.
The investiture took place on January 1 in Brasília without major incident, in the presence of tens of thousands of Lula supporters.