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Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro have vandalized the government district in Brasilia. An overview.
What happened? Radical supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the government district in the Brazilian capital Brasilia on Sunday. The mob wreaked havoc in the Congress building, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace. Video footage from local media showed thousands of people smashing windows and destroying furniture in the buildings.
What is the current situation? Apparently, the security forces have brought the situation under control. Special forces from the military police and the presidential guard cleared the stormed buildings, as reported by the state Agência Brasil. Bolsonaro’s supporters then gathered in parking lots and on the lawn in front of the National Congress. There are said to have been around 200 arrests. Armored vehicles and tear gas were used, and helicopters circled over the government building. According to agencies, President Lula has now arrived in Brasilia to inspect the seat of government.
What happened in the weeks leading up to the riots? As of this month, Brazil has a new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The 77-year-old took his oath of office on January 1st. Lula was president from 2003 to 2010. He was elected by a narrow margin: the left-leaning Lula received a little less than 51 percent of the votes in the runoff last October, his opponent and then President Jair Bolsonaro a little more than 49 percent.
Bolsonaro supporters immediately reacted to the right-wing populist’s election defeat with riots. They blocked numerous trunk roads, set car tires on fire and erected barricades. Bolsonaro, like former US President Donald Trump after his defeat by Joe Biden, had previously cast doubt on the electoral system. At the same time, Bolsonaro never explicitly acknowledged his defeat – knowing that many of his supporters are armed and had already called for a military coup.
Why did the riots happen? Jair Bolsonaro’s rhetoric is probably the biggest reason why the government district was stormed. For years, Bolsonaro has been telling his supporters to arm themselves, and the hard core has actually done so – also because of Bolsonaro’s loose gun laws.
Lula therefore also blamed Bolsonaro for the storming of the government district. He wrote on Twitter that Bolsonaro had advocated this type of violence in previous speeches.
Did Bolsonaro react to the storming of the government district? Jair Bolsonaro has condemned the storming of the government district. A line is being crossed with the storming of government buildings, according to the former president. At the same time, he rejected the “accusations” of Lula on Twitter.
At the same time, Bolsonaro did not stop putting the storming of the government district into perspective. He compared the events, among other things, with the mostly peaceful demonstrations in Brazil in 2013.