Brazil: 8 lessons from the January 8 assault

1. A surprise that isn’t a surprise

Seven days earlier, Lula’s entourage had hesitated: would the president-elect take the convertible Rolls to get to his swearing-in, or would he use a more secure means of transport? The black 1952 Silver Wraith had finally been retained, and the President’s inauguration had passed off peacefully. From this point of view, the January 8 attack on the centers of federal power in Brasilia is a surprise. The page seemed turned, after an extraordinarily tense presidential campaign.

“Fascist vandals”: ​​what we know about the pro-Bolsonaro assault in Brasilia

But surprise is all relative. For days, the assault had been openly prepared and discussed on social media. On Twitter, more than 10,000 accounts have spread the expression “Fiesta da Selma », a play on words around an expression evoking a “feast of the battle cry”. The government was of course alerted. On Saturday, the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, had also activated the National Force to ban the Esplanade of the ministries, but the 200 men mobilized were clearly insufficient. José Múcio, the Minister of Defence, for his part advocated restraint to deal with the discomfort of military leaders in the face of Lula’s election. On December 12, already, the elected power (but not yet officially in place) had already decided to ignore the demonstrators in front of the barracks