Supporters of Brazilian far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his electoral defeat have stormed the Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in the capital, Brasilia.
Videos on social media showed Bolsonaro supporters smashing windows and furniture of the national Congress and Supreme Court buildings and climbing the on the roofs on Sunday. The Congress building is where Brazil’s Senate and Chamber of Deputies conducts its legislative business.
Images on TV channel Globo News also showed protesters roaming the presidential palace, many of them wearing green and yellow, the colors of the flag that have also come to symbolise the Bolsonaro government.
Security forces used tear gas in an effort to repel the demonstrators. Local media estimated about 3,000 people were involved in the incident.
The incident comes just a week after the inauguration of Bolsonaro’s leftist rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro supporters have been protesting against Lula’s election win since October 30, blocking roads, setting vehicles on fires and gathering outside military buildings, asking armed forces to intervene. Many believed election results were fraudulent or unreliable.
Reporting from Rio de Janeiro, Al Jazeera’s Monica Yanakiew, said that some Bolsonaro supporters have been camped out in Brasilia since election.
“People from this camp and from other parts marched toward the square in Brasilia, called the Three Powers square, because in this same square you have Congress, the presidential palace, and the Supreme Court and they’ve entered the three buildings,” she said.
“They went inside the Supreme Court, which they consider to be their main enemy, because they say that the Supreme Court is biased, and recognised an election that they say is stolen,” Yanakiew said, noting that the incident occurred after Lula’s January 1 inauguration, when authorities were less likely to expect such a siege.
She added the incident took place on a Sunday, when legislators, justices and other officials were not on the premises.
The incident recalled the January 6 invasion of the US Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, who like Bolsonaro’s supporters, also claimed without evidence the 2020 US presidential election was “stolen”.
On Twitter, Brazil’s Justice Minister Flavio Dino said: “This absurd attempt to impose their will by force will not prevail”.
“The government of the Federal District has ensured there will be reinforcements. And the forces at our disposal are at work,” he said.
Video on social media showed security forces forming a barrier with their shields as they moved towards the buildings.
Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco said he was in permanent contact with Brasilia’s governor, Ibaneis Rocha, and that the entire police apparatus had been mobilised to control the situation.
For his part, Bolsonaro left Brazil at the end of the year and travelled to Florida, the US state where Trump now resides.
Meanwhile, Lula was in Sao Paulo for the weekend and on a trip to the interior of the state, his Workers Party asked the office of the top public prosecutor to order public security forces to act in containing the demonstrators.
Article source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/8/bolsonaro-supporters-storm-government-buildings-in-brazil
