New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern at the rioting and vandalism at Brazil's government offices. In a tweet tagging Brazil President Lula, he wrote, "Deeply concerned about the news of rioting and vandalism against the State institutions in Brasilia. Democratic traditions must be respected by everyone. We extend our full support to the Brazilian authorities."
Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his election defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in the capital on Sunday, a week after the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva. Thousands of demonstrators bypassed security barricades, climbed on roofs, smashed windows and invaded all three buildings, which were believed to be largely vacant and sit on Brasilia's vast Three Powers Square. Some of them called for a military intervention to either restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power, or oust Lula from the presidency.
President Lula was at the Planalto Palace and at the STF Sunday evening. He said that the coup plotters who promoted the destruction of public property in Brasilia are being identified and will be punished. "Tomorrow we resume work at the Planalto Palace. Democracy always," he wrote in a tweet.
In a news conference from Sao Paulo state, the President said Bolsonaro had encouraged the uprising by those he termed fascist fanatics, and he read a freshly signed decree for the federal government to take control of security in the federal district. There is no precedent for what they did and these people need to be punished, Lula said. TV channel Globo News showed protesters wearing the green and yellow colours of the national flag that also have come to symbolize the nation's conservative movement, and were adopted by Bolsonaro's supporters.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, however, denounced the "depredations and invasions of public buildings" in Brasilia. "Peaceful demonstrations, in the form of 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," he wrote on Twitter.
"Throughout my mandate, I have always been within the four lines of the Constitution, respecting and defending the laws, democracy, transparency and our sacred freedom," he said adding that he repudiated the accusations, 'without evidence', attributed to him by President Lula. The former president has repeatedly sparred with Supreme Court justices during his tenure, and the room where they convene was trashed by the rioters. They sprayed fire hoses inside the Congress building and ransacked offices at the presidential palace. Windows were broken in all of the buildings.
Bolsonaro, who flew to Florida ahead of Lula's inauguration, has not commented on Sunday's events. Police fired tear gas to try to regain control of the buildings. At about 6:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. EST), less than four hours after the storming, security forces were shown on television backing protesters away from the Supreme Court and marching them down a ramp to the presidential palace with their hands secured behind their backs.
But with the damage already done, many in Brazil were questioning how the police had ignored abundant warnings, were unprepared or were somehow complicit. Lula said at his news conference there was incompetence or bad faith on the part of police, and that they had been likewise complacent when Bolsonaro supporters rioted in the capital weeks ago. He promised those officers would be punished and expelled from the corps.
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The incident recalled the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Political analysts have warned for months that a similar storming was a possibility in Brazil, given that Bolsonaro has sown doubt about the reliability of the nation's electronic voting system without any evidence. The results were recognized as legitimate by politicians from across the spectrum, including some Bolsonaro allies, as well as dozens of foreign governments.
Unlike the 2021 attack in the U.S., it is likely that few officials were working in the Brazilian Congress and Supreme Court on a Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter that Washington condemned the attacks, saying that using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable. Earlier videos on social media showed a limited presence of the capital's military police; one showed officers standing by as people flooded into Congress, with one using his phone to record images.
The capital's security secretariat didn't respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment about the relative absence of the police. Brazilian authorities had two years to learn the lessons from the Capitol invasion and to prepare themselves for something similar in Brazil," said Maurcio Santoro, a political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. Local security forces in Brasilia failed in a systematic way to prevent and respond to extremist actions in the city.
And the new federal authorities, such as the ministers of justice and of defense, were not able to act in a decisive way. Federal District Gov. Ibaneis Rocha confirmed on Twitter he had fired the capital city's head of public security, Anderson Torres. Local media reported that Torres is currently in the U.S.The office of Lula's attorney general asked the Supreme Court to order Torres' imprisonment.
Bolsonaro supporters have been protesting Lula's electoral win since Oct. 30, blocking roads, setting vehicles on fire and gathering outside military buildings, urging the armed forces to intervene. The head of Brazil's electoral authority rejected the request from Bolsonaro and his political party to nullify ballots cast on most electronic voting machines. Two years since Jan. 6, Trump's legacy continues to poison our hemisphere, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who chairs the Senate's foreign relations committee, tweeted, adding that he blamed Bolsonaro for inciting the acts. Protecting democracy & holding malign actors to account is essential. (With Agency inputs)
