The Brazilian authorities are investigating one of the worst attacks on the country’s democracy in the 38 years since the end of the military dictatorship, after thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-Right former President, stormed government buildings in the capital, Brasília, on Sunday to protest what they falsely claim was a stolen election.
Brazil was also bracing for the possibility of further unrest on Monday as the authorities started to dismantle tent cities outside military headquarters, where Bolsonaro supporters have been camping out since October’s election. The election was won by the Leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Overnight, the Supreme Court ordered the authorities to break up the camps, which have sprung up in front of army barracks in cities across Brazil, within 24 hours. Lula also signed an emergency decree late on Sunday, putting federal authorities in charge of security in Brazil’s capital.
In scenes reminiscent of January 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol, Bolsonaro’s supporters on Sunday laid siege to Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices — the violent culmination of years of conspiracy theories advanced by Bolsonaro and his far-Right allies. They set fires, repurposed barricades as weapons, knocked police officers from horseback and filmed their violent acts as they committed them. By Sunday night, the seat of government had been cleared and officials had arrested scores of people, with one official saying the number of arrests had exceeded 400.
For Lula, who officially returned as President only last week, a central challenge will be to unify the nation after a bitter election in which some of his supporters framed Bolsonaro as genocidal and cannibalistic, while Bolsonarorepeatedly called Lula a criminal. ( Lula served 19 months in prison on corruption charges that were later thrown out.)
Surveys have shown that a sizeable chunk of the Brazilian population says it believes that Lula stole the election, fuelled by false claims that have spread across the Internet and a shift among many Right-wing voters away from traditional sources of news— problems that have also plagued American politics in recent years.
Outrageous: Biden
President Joe Biden, who was visiting the southern US border on Sunday, called the protests “outrageous”, and Jake Sullivan, his national security adviser, said that the US “condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil”.
Biden joined other world leaders in condemning Sunday’s riots, calling them “outrageous”, while Bolsonaro who is now in Florida denied inciting his supporters and said the rioters had “crossed the line”.
