Hundreds of supporters of Brazil’s right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro broke through police barricades and stormed into Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court on Sunday, in a dramatic protest against the inauguration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last week.
A sea of protesters wearing green and yellow flags flooded into the seat of power in Brasilia, storming the floor of Congress and scaling the roof of the iconic building to unveil a banner with an appeal to the Brazilian military: “INTERVENTION.”
Social media footage showed rioters smashing doors and windows to gain entry to the Congress building, then going inside, vandalizing lawmakers’ offices and using a tilted speaker’s platform on the legislative floor as a slide as they shouted taunts at lawmakers. there is none.
One video shows a crowd outside pulling a policeman off his horse and beating him to the ground.
The shocking image resembles the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol building by supporters of president Donald Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro.
Police, who had established a security cordon around Brasilia’s Three Powers Square, home to the classic modernist buildings of the National Congress, the Planalto Palace and the Supreme Court, fired tear gas to disperse the rioters, but to no avail.
‘Fake election’
Demonstrator Sarah Lima told AFP that she demanded a review of Lula’s election victory on October 30 against Bolsonaro.
Lula, who took office on Sunday, narrowly won 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent. Bolsonaro, who traveled to the state of Florida on the second day to the end of his term, said he was the victim of a conspiracy against him by Brazil’s election authorities.
“We have to restore order after this fraudulent election,” said Lima, a 27-year-old production engineer wearing the yellow jersey of Brazil’s national soccer team – a symbol Bolsonaro’s own supporters claim – and protesting with his young twins. daughter.
“I’m here for history, for my children,” he added.
Newly installed Minister of Justice and Public Security Flavio Dino called the invasion an “absurd attempt to impose the will (of the protesters) by force.”
“Will not win,” he wrote on Twitter.
“The government of the federal district (Brasilia) is sending reinforcements and troops in the field of action now.”
The unrest came as Lula, 77, was in the southeastern city of Araraquara, visiting areas devastated by floods late last year.
Bolsonaro’s hardline supporters have been protesting outside a military base in Brazil since his election loss, calling for army intervention to prevent Lula, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, from returning to power.
© Agence France-Presse