SUPPORTERS OF BRAZIL’S BOLSONARO STORM CONGRESS, SUPREME COURT AND PRESIDENTIAL PALACE
Written by AIGBOKHAEBHO OKHUELEIGBE on January 9, 2023
Thousands of supporters of former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, who lost re-election in October have invaded the presidential palace, the Congress and the Supreme Court in the country’s capital, Brasilia.
Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his election defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace Sunday, a week after the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Thousands of demonstrators bypassed security barricades, climbed on roofs, smashed windows and invaded all three buildings, which were believed to be largely vacant on the weekend. Some of the demonstrators called for a military intervention to either restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power or oust Lula from the presidency.
Hours went by before control of the buildings on Brasilia’s vast Three Powers Square was reestablished, with hundreds of the participants arrested.
They breached security to gain access and videos show some of them in the very inner rooms of various offices in the respective buildings.
They had been camped in the capital and other cities even before the inauguration of Lula Ignacio Da Silva, who returned to the presidency after defeating Bolsanaro in the close re-run election held in October.
The president is in Sao Paulo, one of the country’s major cities where he had also attended the funeral of football legend, Pele.
He is reported to have said all those involved in the invasion of government buildings will be identified and punished.
In a news conference from Sao Paulo state, Lula accused Bolsonaro of encouraging the uprising by those he termed “fascist fanatics,” and he read a freshly signed decree for the federal government to take control of security in the federal district.
There is no precedent for what they did and these people need to be punished.
