These dramatic scenes of the invasion in Brazil are reminiscent of the attack by supporters of Donald Trump on the Capitol in January 2021.
By Athena Papakosta
Thousands of supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s Congress in the capital, Brasilia. The same nightmarish images were repeated in the Presidential Palace as well as in the Supreme Court. These dramatic scenes of the invasion in Brazil are reminiscent of the attack by supporters of Donald Trump on the Capitol in January 2021.
In deeply polarized and divided Brazil, supporters of the man known as the “Trump of the tropics” have been protesting the election of current president Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva for weeks after Bolsonaro lost the country’s presidential election and they were calling for his overthrow.
Early Sunday afternoon (local time) up to 3,000 extremist Bolsonaro supporters managed to break through the police cordon guarding the zone in which the government buildings, the Presidential Palace, Congress and the Supreme Court are located, in the country’s capital and invade them. Many even climbed onto the roof of the Congress building wrapped in the Brazilian flag, wearing military garb or just the yellow and green shirts of the national soccer team while others were in the Senate chamber causing damage to the building.
The democratically elected leftist president of the country was not in Brasilia but in Sao Paulo where he held extraordinary meetings with ministers and officials. In the presidential decree that was issued, the intervention of the federal authorities was requested in order to deal with the “coup plotters” and punish them. The president of Brazil who was sworn in just a week ago announced the intervention of the military police underlining that “such an attack against the institutions has never happened before in the history of the country”. In his angry statements, Lula da Silva noted that he has been defeated in four electoral contests and that he has never disputed the election result, something he said “Bolsonarism does”. For Brazil’s democratically elected president, the invaders are “fascist fanatics”.
Local media spoke of a well-organized operation with the attackers making sure to take advantage of the fact that yesterday, Sunday, the government buildings were empty. Police made at least 150 arrests.
Jair Bolsonaro is not in the country. A week and two days before the end of his presidential term, he went to the United States of America, specifically to Florida. To this day he has not congratulated Lula da Silva on his election, while until late in the morning he had not condemned the events. Instead, the president of his party condemned the invasion and called it a “shame”.
Many of his supporters have been protesting since late October, blocking roads and setting fire to parked vehicles. In fact, some of them had also camped outside army bases asking for his intervention, i.e. a coup, for the electoral result of the second round of the elections in the country.
Lula da Silva returns to the capital Brasilia leaving spikes against the police. The country’s security forces have now been placed under federal command until January 31.
The US embassy in Brazil condemned the invasion of government buildings by Bolsonaro’s supporters and called on American citizens to avoid the area until further notice. At the same time, the US president condemned the attack. The. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, did the same with a post on Twitter, as did the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez. The presidents of Colombia and Chile also take a similar stance. Announcements in favor of Lula Da Silva have been issued – among others – by the foreign ministers of Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
Political analysts had warned for months that a similar invasion of the US Capitol was possible in Brazil as Bolsonaro, like Trump, repeatedly questioned the credibility of the country’s electoral system – without ever providing evidence. The division that has been simmering for years in the country culminated dramatically yesterday, endangering democracy and its values. The anger of those who hoped that da Silva would not take the reins of Brazil’s government did not stop and culminated in the invasion of the buildings used by his government, which – as everything showed – they treat as an enemy.
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
