Brazil rioters thought troops backed coup
Clean-up of vandalised capital begins as 1,200 are arrested in echoes of US’S January 6 day of shame
AS HEAVILY armed soldiers arrived at Brazil’s congress building, would-be insurrectionists began to cheer, apparently convinced the military had finally decided to back their coup.
However, dreams of restoring their strongman leader, Jair Bolsonaro, to the presidency quickly died as they were bombarded with tear gas and rocked by stun grenades. Moments later, Bolsonaro’s desperados were lying face down in the dirt, their heads buried in Brazilian flags and guns pointed at their heads.
Just like their Trumpist counterparts who stormed the US Capitol in Washington on Jan 6 2021, they had failed to get their way after a day of infamy.
On Sunday, the rioters, decked out in Brazil’s iconic yellow-and-green national football shirt which they have adopted as their unofficial uniform, overwhelmed the capital Brasilia, where they stormed the congress building, the supreme court and the presidential palace.
Their aim was to depose the recently inaugurated president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and reinstate Mr Bolsonaro who had lost a close and bitterly divisive election last October. A vote which his backers, again echoing Donald Trump, claimed was stolen by fraudsters.
Bolsonaro supporters trashed Brazil’s highest seats of power, breaking windows, toppling furniture, and smashing computers and printers.
A massive Emiliano Di Cavalcanti painting at the presidential palace was damaged and other artworks were destroyed or stolen. The U-shaped table where supreme court justices convene was overturned and the door of a justice’s office was ripped off.
By late on Sunday the public buildings were cleared and by last night police had arrested more than 1,200 people. But the shock waves will be felt in Brazil for years to come.
The road to “Brazil’s January 6” began on Oct 30 when Mr Bolsonaro was unseated as president in a runoff election. Bolstered by his claims that Brazil’s electoral system was rigged, his supporters launched immediate protests that began as roadblocks, then makeshift camps were set up outside military barracks in key Brazilian cities.
On Christmas Eve, police in Brasilia arrested a man accused of plotting to blow up a petrol lorry close to the airport and there were heightened fears of violence ahead of the New Year’s Day inauguration of Mr Lula da Silva.
Last weekend, more than 100 coaches carrying 4,000 ardent Bolsonaro backers arrived in Brasilia, indicating plans for a large-scale rally. Then, last Sunday at 2pm, they began a fourand-a-half-mile march to the city’s Three Powers Square, where the state’s executive, judicial and legislative arms of government are based.
Escorting the crowd was a small contingent of military police who reportedly expected a peaceful protest. But, on arrival at the congress, some marchers pushed past security and stormed the grounds. Others ascended a ramp to the building’s roof or broke into the senate chamber. Another group forced their way past thin police blockades to storm the nearby Planalto Palace, the official workplace of the president.
Those who invaded the congress building broke countless windows, daubed slogans on the walls and ransacked government offices.
Cabinet minister Paulo Pimenta complained of the large amount of “organic material” left there and said police would be able to identify rioters by the “blood, faeces and urine” left behind.
The chaos continued for 90 minutes amid a lack of reinforcements for Brasilia’s military police. Footage was shared widely on social media of police looking on as rioters stormed the congress. Some were seen smiling and taking photos alongside Bolsonaro supporters.
At 5pm reinforcements arrived and the rioters were rounded up and expelled from the buildings. Their buoyant mood soon turned as rubber bullets were fired at them and they fled back to the protest camp.
Yesterday, government workers began picking up the pieces while military police began breaking up the camp outside the army barracks and arrested hundreds. Investigations will now begin into how the riot was organised, and how it was allowed to happen.
World leaders, including the presidents of Russia and China joined to condemn the riots. Bolsonaro supporters bore “traces of Trumpism”, Spain said, warning such extremists posed democracy’s biggest threat.
Meanwhile Mr Bolsonaro, who travelled to the United States two days before Mr Lula da Silva took office, was in hospital in Florida with abdominal pains thought to be linked to a campaign trail stabbing he suffered back in 2018.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, faced pressure to remove Mr Bolsonaro from his self-imposed exile in Orlando.
In Brazil last night, questions were being asked about whether police had ignored warnings, underestimated the protesters’ strength or were in any way complicit. Ibaneis Rocha, the district governor, said he had immediately sacked the city’s head of public security.
Meanwhile, the new president saw the destruction at his own office with broken glass across the floor and puddles of water left by a sprinkler system activated when rioters set fire to a rug.
Writing on Twitter, he said: “The terrorists who promote the destruction of public spaces in Brasilia are being identified and punished. Tomorrow we will resume work at the Presidential Palace. Democracy forever.”