By Martin Cole-
Security forces have detained 1,500 people after supporters of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in Brasília.
The detentions have helped calm the storm of disorder following the election victory of Lula that saw a wild uncontrollable riot take over the city.
AD: Capeesh Restaurant
In a news conference late on Sunday, Brazil’s minister of institutional relations said the buildings would be inspected for evidence including fingerprints while images would be scanned to hold people to account, before claiming the rioters apparently intended to spark similar actions nationwide.
Justice minister Flavio Dino said the acts amounted to terrorism and coup-mongering and that police have begun tracking those who paid for the buses that transported protesters to the capital.
“They will not succeed in destroying Brazilian democracy. We need to say that fully, with all firmness and conviction,” Dino said.
AD: Oysterian Sea Food Restaurant And Bar
“We will not accept the path of criminality to carry out political fights in Brazil. A criminal is treated like a criminal.”
Thousands of angry demonstrators who were in support of Bosnoro, ransacked the Congress building as well as the presidential palace, and Supreme Court on Sunday in protest of the Brazilian election results. It was a sight of social mayhem, calling for emergency action t bu the security forces to establish some order.
A supreme court judge has ordered that camps outside the army’s headquarters in the capital – and at other sites – be dismantled.
Bolsonaro lost the presidential election to left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in October after sowing unsubstantiated claims about voting systems.
Many of his supporters consider the results to have been rigged and do not want elected winner Lulu in power, and have been camping outside army buildings around the country calling for a military intervention. They have no faith in Lula, and strongly believe Bosnaro won the election.
The mood is Brazil is akin to that of former president Trump lot the elections to Joe Biden, after he convinced the mob crowd that the elections had been stolen from them, as he urged his supporters to join his slogan ”top the steal”.
Bolsonaro, who was in the U.S while the inauguration of the new president was taking place, has denied encouraging Sunday’s attack and has not stooped down to the level that former U.S president, Donald Trump went. He condemned the riot as going beyond a democratic process.
World leaders including US President Joe Biden have condemned the riots as an attack on democracy
Security forces in an emergency move, dismantled an improvised camp outside the army’s headquarters in Brasilia, where some 3,000 supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro had set up tents.
They were used as a base for the sea of protesters who ran riot inside the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court for around four hours yesterday.
The protesters were seeking military intervention to either restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power or oust the newly inaugurated leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wreaking so mch harvoc that rivalled the January 6 insurrection in The U.S 2020 elections when congressmen met to certify the election of Joe Biden.
Rioters donning the green and yellow of the national flag on Sunday broke windows, toppled furniture, hurled computers and printers to the ground at the nation’s highest seats of power in the capital.
The protesters also overturned the U-shaped table at which supreme court justices convene, ripped a door off one justice’s office and vandalised a statue outside, damaging the building interiors in the end.
Windows were broken, furniture toppled, doors ripped off their hinges, computers and printers thrown to the ground, and a massive Emiliano Di Cavalcanti painting in punctured in five places, striking similarities to the insurrection at the US Capitol two years ago.
Brazilian news channel GloboNews said all of the buildings have now been retaken by security forces, but according to the president’s communications minister, there are people still trying to block roads and access to refineries.
Amid all the chaos, Bolsonaro has been hospitalised with abdominal pain, his wife said today, a day after his supporters invaded the seat of power.
According to reports, Bolsonaro had been admitted to AdventHealth Celebration acute care hospital outside Orlando, Florida, where the former president traveled two days before the end of his term on December 31.
Election defeat: Bolsonaro Image: Marcus Correa
He was hospitalised due to abdominal discomfort stemming from the stabbing attack he suffered in 2018″ during his winning presidential campaign, Michelle Bolsonaro wrote on Instagram..”
Public prosecutors in the capital said local security forces had at very least been negligent while a supreme court justice temporarily suspended the regional governor.
Another justice blamed authorities for not swiftly cracking down on Brazil’s budding neofascism, adding that they will be held criminally responsible.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is advising Irish people to exercise a “high degree of caution” before travelling to Brazil.
“Due to the ongoing security situation in the city of Brasilia, Irish citizens are advised to avoid the central areas of Brasilia until further notice,” a statement on the Department’s website reads.
Bolsonaro like Trump, had been fuelling belief among his hardcore supporters that the electronic voting system was prone to fraud — though he never presented any evidence.
His lawmaker son Eduardo Bolsonaro also held several meetings with Trump, Trump’s longtime ally Steve Bannon and his senior campaign adviser, Jason Miller.
Results from Brazil’s election — the closest in over three decades — were quickly recognised by politicians across the spectrum, including some Bolsonaro allies, as well as dozens of governments.
Lula, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, joined the leaders of both houses of Congress and the chief justice of the Supreme Court in condemning what many called the South American country’s version of the Capitol riots in Washington two years ago.
“The three powers of the republic, the defenders of democracy and the constitution, reject the terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred,” they said in a joint statement.
Following the havoc, Paulo Calmon, a political science professor at the University of Brasilia, said: “Bolsonarism mimics the same strategies as Trumpism. Our January 8 – an unprecedented manifestation in Brazilian politics – is clearly copied from January 6 in the capitol.
“Today’s sad episodes represent yet another attempt to destabilize democracy and demonstrate that the authoritarian, populist radicalism of Brazil’s extreme right remains active under the command of former President Bolsonaro, the ‘Trump of Latin America’.”
Democratic Assault
US President Joe Biden tweeted that the riots were an “assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil” and that he looked forward to continue working with Lula.
In a statement, President Michael D Higgins said: “The democratic election of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is the choice of the Brazilian people.
“President Lula da Silva faces enormous challenges to which all those who believe in the democratic process should lend their support,” the president said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen strongly condemned “the assault on democracy in Brasil” in a tweet.
“This is a major concern to all of us, the defenders of democracy,” she said. “My full support to President @LulaOficial, who was elected freely and fairly.”
China said it “firmly opposes the violent attack” on government buildings in the Brazilian capital.
“China closely follows and firmly opposes the violent attack on the federal authority in Brazil on January 8,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
Beijing, he said, “supports the measures taken by the Brazilian government to calm the situation, restore social order and safeguard national stability.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also condemned riots, tweeting that “the violent attacks on democratic institutions are an assault on democracy which is intolerable”.
“We stand closely by President @LulaOficial and Brazilians,” the tweet read.
French President Emmanuel Macron also tweeted his “unwavering” support, saying that “the will of the Brazilian people and the democratic institutions must be respected!”
The days ahead remain unpredictable in the current climate of mayhem and discontent.
AD: Heritage And Restaurant Lounge Bar