Brazil | Bolsonarists invest the places of power in Brasilia

(Brasilia) Brasilia was plunged into chaos on Sunday, after the invasion of the presidential palace, the Supreme Court and the Congress by hundreds of supporters of the ex-president of the extreme right Jair Bolsonaro, a week after the inauguration of the left-wing president Lula whose election they refuse.

A veritable human tide of demonstrators dressed in yellow and green stormed and ransacked the country’s main places of power in Brasilia. The police were completely overwhelmed, AFP noted, impressive images reminiscent of the invasion of the Capitol in Washington by supporters of former President Donald Trump in January 2021.

On the ramp of the Planalto Palace, where Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received the presidential sash last Sunday, police on horseback tried somehow to dislodge the demonstrators.

In the middle of the Three Powers Square, where the Congress, the Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court meet, a mounted police officer was knocked down and then knocked to the ground by assailants armed with sticks.

Sound grenades were thrown by the police from a helicopter at the demonstrators who occupied the roof of the Congress.

On social networks, we can see videos showing the offices of parliamentarians ransacked or demonstrators standing on the seats of the hemicycle in the Senate.

One sat in the Speaker’s seat in the Upper House, a startling mimicry of pro-Trump protesters in the US Congress two years ago.

The damage seems considerable, in these buildings which are treasures of modern architecture and are full of works of art.

According to CNN, protesters set fire to the carpet in a Congressional lounge, which had to be flooded to put out the fire.

Journalists attacked

The area near the Three Powers Square had however been cordoned off by the authorities, but the Bolsonarists managed to break the security cordons.

The police 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 Brasilia) 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 from the National Force, a special police force sometimes sent to the various states in the event of a threat to law and order.

Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco said on Twitter “vehemently reject this anti-democratic demonstration, which must be punished by the rigor of the law”.

A local press union reported attacks on five journalists. Among them, an AFP photographer was beaten and had all his equipment stolen.

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 Brasilia, to an AFP journalist present on the spot.

Lula, 77, was absent from Brasilia on Sunday: he went to Araraquara, a city in the state of Sao Paulo (southeast) devastated by floods at the end of the year.

Chile’s left-wing president Gabriel Boric tweeted his support for the Lula government “in the face of this cowardly attack on democracy”. His Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, for his part condemned a “fascist attack”.

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 victory and shunned his inauguration, left Brazil two days before the end of his term and is in Florida, United States.

Lula’s investiture took place on 1^er January in Brasilia without major incident, in the presence of tens of thousands of his supporters.

Lula condemns the “fascist” invasion

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has condemned the invasion of places of power in Brasilia by “fascist vandals” and decreed a “federal intervention” on the police to regain control of the security of the capital.

“We will find them all and they will all be punished,” said Lula, who was sworn in as president just a week ago, from Araraquara, in the state of Sao Paulo (southeast).

“Democracy guarantees freedom of expression, but it also requires that institutions be respected,” he added.

“What did these vandals, these fanatical fascists […] is unprecedented in the history of our country. Those who financed (these demonstrations) will pay for these irresponsible and undemocratic acts”, insisted the head of state.

The “federal intervention” decreed by Lula consists in the taking over at the level of the Brazilian State of the command of the security forces, usually under the responsibility of the local authorities.

This decree places all of Brasilia’s security forces under the control of a person appointed by Lula, Ricardo Garcia Capelli, who answers directly to the president and can employ “any body, civil or military”, for the maintenance of order.