Supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro have attacked the parliament building, the presidential palace, and the Supreme Court. The attack came a week after Bolsonaro’s successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as President.
Two years after riots in USA’s Capitol Hill, Brazil witnessed similar scenes of violence and chaos on 8 January 2023 as Right-wing leaders and supporters of former president Bolsonaro attacked the parliament, the presidential palace, and the Supreme Court building in the Brazilian parliament on Sunday.
Thousands of supporters of Bolsonaro refused to believe the results of the recent elections in which he lost, crossed security barriers, climbed on roofs, smashed windows, and caused other mayhem.
The protesters dressed in Brazil’s national football team reached the Speaker’s sitting room inside the Parliament building and vandalized it.
Within a few hours, police had reportedly retaken the Supreme Court and Congress buildings.
The attack came a week after Bolsonaro’s successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as President.
Top leaders of various countries, including former US President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, have condemned the attack in Brazil.
At the same time, the newly elected president of Brazil, Silva called the attack an execution attack. Various comments are being made about the attack on Sunday. He wrote on Twitter, “They took advantage of the silence on Sunday, when we are still setting up the government, to do what they did. And you know that there are several speeches by the former president encouraging this. And this is also his responsibility and the parties that supported him.”
“Whoever did this will be found and punished. Democracy guarantees the right to free expression, but it also requires people to respect institutions. There is no precedent in the history of the country what they did today. For that they must be punished, Silva wrote in another Twitter post.
President Silva also signed a decree for federal intervention.
According to a report by The Washington Post, The Supreme Court ordered the immediate suspension of the governor accusing him and the district’s head of public security of abetting the unprecedented attack on the country’s capital.
“Absolutely NOTHING justifies the secretary of public security and the governor of the federal district’s omission and coexistence with criminals who had previously announced they would conduct violent acts against constitutional powers,” Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote in his decision.
Brazil’s Communications Minister, Paluo Pimenta, has claimed that protesters have taken the weapons stored in the presidential palace. Posting a video on Twitter, he claimed that they were inside the Institutional Security Office and the protesters took away the lethal and non-lethal weapons. The government has not publicly mentioned how many weapons were stolen.
Brazil’s Law Minister Flavio Dino said that 200 protesters have been detained so far. Bolsonaro is not willing to accept the results of the presidential election held in October last year. He did not even attend the swearing-in ceremony of newly elected President Lula da Silva last week. Supporters of Bolsonaro have repeatedly demonstrated violently saying that the results of the presidential election were not fair.
Former President Bolsonaro condemned the violence on Sunday. He is now in America.
In the presidential election, Lula was elected with 50.9 percent of the votes, while Bolsonaro received 49.1 percent of the votes. Left-wing leader Lula, 77, defeated right-wing Bolsonaro in a fiercely contested election.
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