RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Supporters of erstwhile Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who garbage to judge his predetermination decision stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and statesmanlike palace successful the superior connected Sunday, a week aft the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Thousands of demonstrators bypassed information barricades, climbed connected roofs, smashed windows and invaded each 3 buildings, which were believed to beryllium mostly vacant and beryllium connected Brasilia’s immense Three Powers Square.
Some of them called for a subject involution to either reconstruct the far-right Bolsonaro to power, oregon oust Lula from the presidency.
In a quality league from Sao Paulo state, Lula said Bolsonaro had encouraged the uprising by those helium termed “fascist fanatics,” and helium work a freshly signed decree for the national authorities to instrumentality power of information successful the national district.
“There is nary precedent for what they did and these radical request to beryllium punished,” Lula said.
TV transmission Globo News showed protesters wearing the greenish and yellowish colors of the nationalist emblem that besides person travel to symbolize the nation’s blimpish movement, and were adopted by Bolsonaro’s supporters.
The erstwhile president has repeatedly sparred with Supreme Court justices, and the country wherever they convene was trashed by the rioters. They sprayed occurrence hoses wrong the Congress gathering and ransacked offices astatine the statesmanlike palace. Windows were breached successful each of the buildings.
Bolsonaro, who flew to Florida up of Lula’s inauguration, has not commented connected Sunday’s events.
Police fired teardrop state successful their efforts to retrieve the buildings, and were shown connected tv successful the precocious day marching protesters down a ramp from the statesmanlike palace with their hands secured down their backs. By aboriginal evening, power of the buildings had been reestablished, Justice Minister Flavio Dino said successful a property league that astir 200 radical had been arrested, and officers were firing much teardrop state to thrust lingering protesters from the area.
But with the harm already done, galore successful Brazil were questioning however the constabulary had ignored abundant warnings, were unprepared oregon were someway complicit.
Lula said astatine his quality league determination was “incompetence oregon atrocious faith″ connected the portion of police, and that they had been likewise complacent erstwhile Bolsonaro supporters rioted successful the superior weeks ago. He promised those officers would beryllium punished and expelled from the corps.
The incidental recalled the Jan. 6, 2021, battle connected the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Political analysts person warned for months that a akin storming was a anticipation successful Brazil, fixed that Bolsonaro has sown uncertainty astir the reliability of the nation’s physics voting system — without immoderate evidence. The results were recognized arsenic morganatic by politicians from crossed the spectrum, including immoderate Bolsonaro allies, arsenic good arsenic dozens of overseas governments.
Unlike the 2021 onslaught successful the U.S., it is apt that fewer officials were moving successful the Brazilian Congress and Supreme Court connected a Sunday.
U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that the riots successful Brazil were “outrageous.” His nationalist information advisor Jake Sullivan went a measurement further connected Twitter and said the U.S. “condemns immoderate effort to undermine ideology successful Brazil.”
Biden aboriginal tweeted that helium looked guardant to continuing to enactment with Lula, calling the riots an “assault connected ideology and connected the peaceful transportation of powerfulness successful Brazil.”
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted: “The convulsive attempts to undermine ideology successful Brazil are unjustifiable. President @LulaOficial and the authorities of Brazil person the afloat enactment of the UK.”
Earlier videos connected societal media showed a constricted beingness of the capital’s subject police; 1 showed officers lasting by arsenic radical flooded into Congress, with 1 utilizing his telephone to grounds images. The capital’s information secretariat didn’t respond to a petition from The Associated Press for remark astir the comparative lack of the police.
“Brazilian authorities had 2 years to larn the lessons from the Capitol penetration and to hole themselves for thing akin successful Brazil,” said Maurício Santoro, governmental subject prof astatine the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “Local information forces successful Brasilia failed successful a systematic mode to forestall and to respond to extremist actions successful the city. And the caller national authorities, specified arsenic the ministers of justness and of defense, were not capable to enactment successful a decisive way.”
Federal District Gov. Ibaneis Rocha confirmed connected Twitter helium had fired the superior city’s caput of nationalist security, Anderson Torres. Local media reported that Torres is presently successful the U.S.
The bureau of Lula’s lawyer wide asked the Supreme Court to bid Torres’ imprisonment.
Bolsonaro supporters person been protesting Lula’s electoral triumph since Oct. 30, blocking roads, mounting vehicles connected occurrence and gathering extracurricular subject buildings, urging the equipped forces to intervene. The caput of Brazil’s electoral authorization rejected the petition from Bolsonaro and his governmental enactment to nullify ballots formed connected astir physics voting machines.
“Two years since Jan. 6, Trump’s bequest continues to poison our hemisphere,” U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who chairs the Senate’s overseas relations committee, tweeted, adding that helium blamed Bolsonaro for inciting the acts. “Protecting ideology & holding malign actors to relationship is essential.”