Hundreds of supporters of the former president far-right Jair Bolsonaro invaded this Sunday the Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace of Planalto in Brasilia, in rejection of the inauguration a week ago of the left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
A human tide of protesters dressed in yellow and green stormed the headquarters of the powers in the Brazilian capital, according to AFP, leaving impressive images that recall the invasion of the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Protesters protest against the return of Lula to powerwho defeated Bolsonaro in the second round on October 30 and was sworn in as the new president of Brazil a week ago.
The images from the media such as the Globo News television channel and others broadcast on social networks showed the protesters invading Congress facilities, but also reaching the Planalto Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court -highest court- of Brazil, located in the same area where the three powers of the State are concentrated, the so-called Esplanade of the Ministries.
In what was rapidly developing into a serious episode of political instability, authorities cordoned off the area around the legislative building in Brasilia.
However, hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters who refuse to accept the electoral victory of the leftist Lula made their way, overcame the fences, climbed the ramps and congregated on the roof of the modernist architecture building, an AFP reporter found.
“This absurd attempt to impose the will by force will not prevail,” warned the new Minister of Justice, flavio dino, on his Twitter account. The senior official added that “there will be reinforcements” from the authorities to suppress this invasion.
On Saturday, Dino authorized the deployment of agents from the National Force, a special police force.
Bolsonarists call for military intervention
The shocking images released in the media and networks are reminiscent of the violent invasion of the United States Capitol building in Washington, by supporters of then-Republican President Donald Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro, to prevent the certification of Democrat Joe Biden as winner of the elections.
“We have to restore order, after this fraudulent election,” Sarah Lima, a 27-year-old pro-Bolsonaro engineer from Goianesia, 300 km from Brasilia, who was present at the scene, told an AFP journalist.
The tide of people also burst into the National Congressmany waving Brazilian flags in a similar patriotic tinge.
In that building is where the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil conduct their legislative sessions.
Security forces used tear gas in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse the protesters.
Lula, 77, was not in Brasilia on Sunday. She traveled to Araraquara, a city in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo, devastated by floods at the end of the year.
Bolsonaro, who narrowly lost to former President Lula (2003-2010) in the second round of the presidential elections on October 30, left Brazil at the end of the year and traveled to the United States, to the state of Florida (southeast), where Trump now resides.
Supporters of the former Brazilian president have been demonstrating outside military barracks since Bolsonaro was defeated to demand the intervention of the armywith the aim of preventing Lula’s return to power for a third term.
