Brazil | The police regain control of places of power invaded by Bolsonarists

(Brasilia) The police evacuated the Brazilian Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in Brasilia, more than four hours after the assault on Sunday by hundreds of supporters of the far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, recalling the invasion of the Capitol in Washington in January 2021.

The situation seemed under control, even if a large number of these demonstrators refusing to recognize the election of Lula remained in the surroundings of the places of power of the Brazilian capital.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in office for only a week and already facing a major crisis, condemned the invasion of places of power in the capital by “vandals, fanatical fascists”.

He placed the local security forces under the command of the federal forces to take over security in Brasilia where the police were totally overwhelmed by the attacks of the Bolsonarists.

“We will find them all and they will all be punished,” he said from Araraquara, in the state of Sao Paulo, where he had gone after floods, deploring incidents “unprecedented in history. from Brazil “. “Those who funded (these protests) will pay for these irresponsible and undemocratic acts,” he warned.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Twitter that “the depredations and invasions of public buildings […] are contrary to the rule” governing “peaceful demonstrations”.

In another tweet, Jair Bolsonaro, who is in the United States, however “dismissed the accusations, without proof” of his successor Lula, who said the “speech” of his far-right predecessor had “encouraged” the “fascist vandals” having invaded the places of power of Brasilia.

“Unacceptable”

According to several Brazilian media, at least 150 bolsonarists, dressed in yellow and green, have been arrested. Television images showed them descending in single file, hands behind their backs, the ramp of the presidential palace of Planalto, framed by police. On other images, we can see a bus full of demonstrators arrested leaving in the direction of a police station.

Law enforcement seemed to be gradually regaining control of the situation by early evening, with water cannons keeping protesters at bay.

The governor of the Federal District of Brasilia, Ibaneis Rocha, an ally of Jair Bolsonaro who left Brazil two days before the end of his term and is in Florida, United States, apologized to President Lula in a video. He called those responsible for the depredations of public buildings “real vandals” and “real terrorists”.

“We were monitoring with the Minister (of Justice) Flavio Dino all these movements […] At no time did we think that these demonstrations would take on such proportions,” he said.

Other allies of the outgoing president have also dissociated themselves from this violence, including Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the PL, Bolsonaro’s party, who regretted “a sad day for the Brazilian nation”

These rampages provoked an avalanche of outraged reactions in the world. French President Emmanuel Macron told Lula he could “count on the unwavering support of France”.

His American counterpart Joe Biden considered the violence of the demonstrators “scandalous”. “Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable,” tweeted its Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Considerable damage

The center of power in Brasilia was plunged into chaos. The area 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. A mounted police officer was unhorsed and then knocked to the ground by assailants armed with sticks.

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

On social networks, videos have circulated showing ransacked offices of parliamentarians.

A protester sat in the seat of the President of the Senate, a startling mimicry of pro-Trump protesters in the US Congress two years ago.

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

Paintings of inestimable value were damaged, including “The mulattoes”, by the modernist painter Di Cavalcanti, exhibited at the Presidential Palace and pierced with several holes, according to photos circulating on social networks.

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

“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.

Bolsonarists have already been demonstrating in front of military barracks since the narrow defeat of the outgoing far-right president on October 30.

They demanded the intervention of the army to prevent Lula from returning to power for a third term, after those from 2003 to 2010. Some of them also blocked main roads for more than a week after the election.