Brazil’s authorities work to identify riot organizers
Turn their focus toward political, business elites
A day after arresting hundreds of people over the riot at Brazil’s capital, Brazilian authorities turned their focus on Tuesday to the political and business elites suspected of inspiring, organizing, or funding the rioters, who seized the seats of government in support of the far-right former president.
In the most dramatic example of that turn, prosecutors on Tuesday asked a federal court to freeze the assets of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, citing “the accountability process and the vandalism that occurred” in the capital, Brasília, on Sunday, when Bolsonaro supporters ransacked the Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential offices.
The petition was one of several moves by authorities that highlighted the scope of their hunt to identify the ideological, logistical, and financial architects of Sunday’s chaos, and to hold them accountable for the worst attack on Brazil’s institutions since a military dictatorship ended in 1985.
A prominent government official was accused of “sabotaging” security at the government complex. The Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the chief of the military police. And the attorney general’s office was expected to take action against more than 100 companies thought to have helped the protesters.
The request to freeze Bolsonaro’s assets is now in the hands of a judge, but it is unclear whether the court has the legal power to block his accounts. And freezing assets, even if it were not challenged in court, could prove to be a lengthy and complex process in its own right.
The justice minister, Flavio Dino, said Tuesday that police were seeking arrest warrants for “people who did not come to Brasília but participated in the crime, who are organizers, financiers.”
A day earlier, he said authorities had zeroed in on companies in at least 10 states that were suspected of providing financial aid for those who took part in the attack. The attorney general’s office is also expected to ask a federal court to freeze the financial assets of more than 100 companies believed to have transported rioters to the capital or provided them with free food and shelter, according to press reports.
Supporters of Bolsonaro had camped out for weeks outside the army headquarters in Brasília, espousing the false claim that the presidential election in October was stolen, and some called for the military to step in. Military and independent experts found no credible evidence of voter fraud in the election, which was won by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president who defeated Bolsonaro and took office Jan. 1.
Bolsonaro had for years asserted, without evidence, that Brazil’s election systems were plagued by fraud, but after the October election, he authorized a transition of power to Lula. Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since before the inauguration, criticized the rioters Sunday, saying that peaceful demonstrations were part of democracy but the “destruction and invasions of public buildings” was not.
Following the takeover of the buildings, investigators also face difficult questions about why rioters were able to enter the buildings so easily — and whether authorities were blindsided, negligent, or somehow complicit.
Some officials have been quick to place most of the blame on Anderson Torres, who served as Bolsonaro’s justice minister before becoming the public security secretary of the Federal District, which includes Brasília.
Ricardo Capelli, who is temporarily in charge of security in the Federal District under an emergency decree signed by Lula on Sunday, accused Torres of “sabotaging” security in the capital.
“There is no security force without command,” Capelli told reporters Tuesday. As soon as Torres took over Jan. 2, Capelli said, “Chaos ensues. Coincidence? I don’t think so.”
The attorney general has requested the arrest of Torres and prosecutors are asking a judge to freeze his assets, along with those of the district’s governor, Ibaneis Rocha, who was suspended from his post after the riot.
There are signs the military police are under investigation, as well, either for complacency or even for aiding the rioters. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Fabio Augusto Vieira, chief of the military police in the Federal District and the official responsible for police forces Sunday.