Two years after the assault on Capitol Hill , the perfect replica takes place in Brazil : thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro have occupied Parliament in Brasilia .
They did not accept the victory of Inácio Lula da Silva in last autumn's elections. For this reason, the followers of the far-right former president raided the seat of Parliament, the Planalto building, the seat of government, and the building of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal on Sunday afternoon.
The security forces initially failed to stop the furious wave armed with a green-gold flag which, with acts of vandalism, carried out an occupation long anticipated and, in the end, accomplished. According to initial estimates, the assailants would have numbered 15,000 .
"A fascist attack against democratic institutions ", said the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, defining the assailants "terrorists" and assuring that "they will be punished in an exemplary way ". An attack that lasted for hours and which ended with the intervention of federal forces , after an emergency meeting between Lula and the government and after having ordered the closure of the center of the capital.
Assessed the possibility of deploying the army to clear the siege, the police, after control by the Supreme Court, also managed to regain the land of Planalto, seat of the presidency, and that of Congress. The first toll is over 1,200 arrests . The arrest of former Brasilia security secretary Anderson Torres was also sought after the chaos erupted.
The police used tear gas and rubber bullets to try to push back thousands of people who nevertheless managed to break through the security cordons. Many climbed up the building to occupy the roof and entered from there. President Lula , who at the time was not in Brasilia but in the state of São Paulo, visiting some flooded areas, returned to the capital in the evening.
Against the former president Bolsonaro, at the time the subject of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the pandemic, the senators first in opposition and now in government intend to re-submit the complaints: the leader of the right in fact no longer has the "privileged forum". the right of the high offices of the state not to be tried criminally by the common courts. Bolsonaro, who never congratulated Lula on his election, left Brazil on December 30, two days before the end of his mandate, and went on board the presidential plane of the Air Force to Florida, in the United States United.
“This absurd attempt to impose the will by force will not prevail. The federal district government says there will be reinforcements. And the forces at our disposal are at work. I am in the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice», Brazilian justice minister Flavio Dino wrote on Twitter shortly after the assault on the institutional offices.
(Unioneonline/vf)