Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In January 2020, pro-Donald Trump militants attacked the US Congress against the defeat of the former President in the November 2019 elections. In April 2021, anti-Rajapakse family Sri Lankans stormed into several important buildings, including the President’s Palace and Parliament, against an unprecedented economic crisis and forced President and the Prime Minister to flee the country.
Now, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the largest country in South America, has taken the Sri Lankan way via the US diversion. On Sunday, angry supporters of defeated far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stormed key buildings and smashed windows of the National Congress and the Supreme Court, and lay siege to them for over three hours.
In a dramatic protest against the new President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inauguration last week, around 3,000 Bolsonaro supporters broke into Brazil’s Congress building, Presidential Palace, and the Supreme Court, among others. A leftist veteran, da Silva defeated Bolsonaro in a runoff election on October 30, 2022. The former President challenged the election results and has not explicitly conceded, though he said he would cooperate with the transition of power.
Bolsonaro denounced the “depredations and invasions of public buildings” in the national capital Brasilia after his supporters stormed key government buildings. He tweeted, “peaceful demonstrations, respecting the law, are part of democracy.”
“However, depredations and invasions of public buildings as occurred today, as well as those practiced by the left in 2013 and 2017, escape the rule…Throughout my mandate, I have always been acting according to the Constitution, respecting and defending the laws, democracy, transparency, and our sacred freedom,” he added.
His supporters climbed onto the roof of the Congress building, where Brazil’s Senate and Chamber of Deputies conduct their legislative business, unfurling a banner that read “intervention” and an apparent appeal to Brazil’s military.
Footage on TV channel Globo News also showed protesters roaming the Presidential Palace, many of them wearing green and yellow—the colors of the Brazilian flag, which also symbolized the previous Bolsonaro government.
Security forces dubbed the demonstrators “terrorists” and fired tear gas to push them back.
The three-hour siege came just a week after the inauguration of Bolsonaro’s leftist rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Responding to the invasion, Lula declared a federal security intervention in Brasilia that will remain in place until January-end.
Meanwhile, police arrested nearly 400 people and cleared the massive crowds from government buildings, the media reported.
“We continue working to identify all the others who participated in these terrorist acts this afternoon in the Federal District. We continue to work to restore order,” police said.
The three main government buildings—the Supreme Court, the Presidential Palace, and the Congressional building—involved in Sunday’s breach were cleared of protesters, police added.
Moreover, Justice Minister Flavio Dino said that Brazil’s government will adopt more measures aimed at strengthening the capital of Brasilia. “There are still people on the internet saying that they are going to continue with terrorist acts. And they will not be able to destroy Brazilian democracy. They won’t.”
He also denounced Sunday’s events in Brasilia as “a coup,” reported CNN.
“We regret that the heritage of the Brazilian people has been squandered in a vile way. This is not about the continuity of the electoral process, it is about coup d’etat, terrorism,” the minister said adding that “We are not going to accept the path of criminality to carry out a political struggle in Brazil. Criminals will be treated like criminals.”
“This will never happen again in this country because there is unity among the institutions to guarantee social peace and act against terrorism.”
Social media like Facebook removed the objectionable content.
“We’re also designating this as a violating event, which means we will remove content that supports or praises these actions. We’re actively monitoring the situation and will continue removing content that violates our policies,” a Facebook spokesman said.
Its parent company Meta has, in the past, designated violent events, like terrorist attacks, school shootings, and the January 6 attack on the US Capitol as so-called “violating events.” The policy allows the company to expedite content removal in these circumstances.