Brazilian police have begun dismantling dozens of anti-government protest camps across the country after days of violence in which supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress, the supreme court and the presidential palace.
Heavily armed police began on Monday to remove a group of radical Bolsonaro supporters who, since losing the election in October to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have camped outside an army base, demanding the results be rigged and calling for a coup.
Local media estimated around 5,000 protesters had joined the camp, many of whom were arrested in Monday’s operation.
Security forces also cleared protesters in São Paulo, who had blocked a highway with burning tires for two hours.
The police action followed the arrest on Sunday of more than 300 pro-Bolsonaro activists, who were among the thousands who stormed state institutions in the capital Brasília. The action sparked national protests and near-universal condemnation from across the political and international spectrum.
As in the invasion of the US Capitol two years ago by supporters of President Donald Trump, the riots caused an immediate crisis for Lula’s administration, which took office on January 1.
“The demand is for a military intervention, for a military coup,” said Beatriz Rey, a political researcher at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “We have a part of the population that does not agree with democracy and this is very serious.”
The ease with which rioters stormed the building also raised questions about the loyalty of state security forces to the new left-wing leader.
After the attack, Alexandre de Moraes, a judge of the Supreme Court, ordered the suspension of the governor of Brasília, Ibaneis Rocha, for 90 days, for “abstention” from his duties.
De Moraes also ordered pro-Bolsonaro camps outside army bases across the country to be dismantled within 24 hours.
Lula, who took office at the beginning of the month, called the protesters “destructive and fascist” and vowed to punish them. Law enforcement officials are now trying to track down the organizers and financiers of the incident.
Bolsonaro, who is in Florida, said on Sunday that the protesters’ actions had “crossed the line”. But he faced strong criticism for supporting radical elements in the right-wing movement.
“Bolsonaro is in a complicated situation. When he decided to speak yesterday, it was defensive,” said Carlos Melo, a political scientist at the Insper Institute for Education and Research in São Paulo.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic US congresswoman, called for “U.S [to] stop giving protection to Bolsonaro in Florida”.
Joe Biden, the US president, quickly condemned the riots as “an attack on democracy and the peaceful transfer of power”, adding that “Brazil’s democratic institutions have their full support and the will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined”.
Brazil’s main Bovespa stock index remained flat at the opening on Monday morning, while the real currency slid 0.9 percent to trade at 5.29 against the US dollar.
William Jackson, of consultancy Capital Economics, said: “The implications of the invasion of the Brazilian Congress by protesters yesterday are primarily political.
“But the unrest could lead to long-lasting risk premiums on the country’s financial assets, especially if they ask Lula to double down on his economic agenda,” he said. This is a reference to the president’s focus on improving social welfare and his opposition to the country’s constitutional cap on public spending.
Tiago Cunha, portfolio manager at Ace Capital, said: “We have to pay attention to the consequences [of Sunday’s events] — the truck drivers on strike are more important than the riots in an empty Brasília. A deeper and deeper reaction from the Supreme Court could also cause unrest.