Brasilia, Brazil.- President Jair Bolsonaro assured this Friday that there was no justification for what he called an attempted “terrorist act” after police thwarted a man’s plan to detonate an explosive device in Brasilia last week in protest against Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, who takes over on Sunday.
The outgoing far-right leader tried to distance himself from George Washington de Oliveira Sousa, who was arrested for the attack and told the authority that Bolsonaro’s call to arms inspired him to seize an arsenal of weapons and explosives.
“The man had ideas that are not shared by any citizen, but now they classify him as a ‘bolsonarista’,” the president complained in a broadcast on social networks.
Tensions have been high in the South American country after the most tense election in a generation, in which Bolsonaro was narrowly defeated by Lula da Silva.
SAYS FAREWELL BETWEEN TEARS
In the live broadcast, the far-right President said a tearful goodbye to his followers.
“The world will not end on January 1. We have a great future ahead of us. Battles are lost, but we will not lose wars,” he said.
Bolsonaro plans to travel to the United States shortly when he leaves the Presidency, although he did not clarify when he will embark, nor if he will participate in Lula’s inauguration ceremony in Brasilia.
The General Secretariat of the Presidency authorized the transfer abroad of a delegation of officials to provide “security and personal support to the future former President of the Republic, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, on an international trip to Miami, United States, to take place from 1 to 30 January 2023”.
Bolsonaro did not mention the trip, but he addressed the hundreds of followers who continue to mobilize in front of military headquarters in Brasilia and other cities, asking for an intervention by the Armed Forces to prevent Lula’s return to power.
“Some must be criticizing me, saying that I could have done this or that. I cannot do something that is not well done, without the side effects being too harmful,” he lamented.
