Brasilia, Brazil.- The Brazilian authorities retook control of the three seats of power in the capital this Sunday, after a federal intervention decreed by the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the face of the massive invasion of followers of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
According to different local media, at least 150 Bolsonaro supporters have been arrested after the invasion and looting of Congress, the Planalto Presidential Palace and the Federal Supreme Court (STF, highest court) of Brazil, located on the so-called Esplanade of the Ministries.
Images from the CNN Brasil television network showed Bolsonaristas walking down the ramp of the Planalto presidential palace in a file, with their hands behind their backs, flanked by police officers.
In other images, a bus full of arrested protesters was seen being transferred to a police station in the Federal District of Brasilia (center).
At nightfall, the public forces seemed to have the situation under control, although numerous protesters, who reject Lula’s election, remained in Brasilia near the center of power of the South American giant.
Throughout the day, a human tide dressed in yellow and green occupied the headquarters of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Powers in the Brazilian capital (center), according to AFP, leaving shocking images that evoked those of the invasion of the Capitol – headquarters of the US Congress – in Washington, on January 6, 2021.
The “federal intervention” decreed by the leftist president consists of taking control of the command of security forces usually directed by local authorities.
The decree placed the security forces under the authority of a person appointed by Lula and reporting directly to him, Ricardo Capelli. He will be able to resort to “any organ, civil or military” to guarantee order.
“These people will be punished and we are going to find out who is financing these vandals who went to Brasilia, and they will all pay with the force of the law for this anti-democratic gesture of irresponsibility,” declared the 77-year-old president from the city of Araraquara, a city devastated by floods at the end of the year.
“These vandals, these fanatical fascists, have done what has never been done in the history of this country,” added Lula, who narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in the second round on October 30 and was sworn in as the new president a week ago. of Brazil for the third time, having previously governed between 2003 and 2010.
Throughout the world, numerous leaders condemned the seizure of the seats of power in Brasilia.
US President Joe Biden called the protesters’ violence “outrageous.” And his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, declared that “using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable.”
The leaders of France, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and Chile, among others, also rejected the attack. Bolsonaro condemns “looting and invasions”
The far-right ex-president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, condemned the “looting and invasion of public buildings” after hundreds of his most radical followers broke into the headquarters of Congress, the Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court in Brasilia, causing various damage.
Bolsonaro rejected on his Twitter account what he described as “unfounded” accusations by the new president, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that he had incited the invasion of the seats of power in Brasilia.
The former president (2019-2022), who had traveled to the state of Florida (southeastern US) last month on the penultimate day of his term, also defended the right to “peaceful protests” as an intrinsic part of democracy.
