Two bomb explosions and a body in front of the Supreme Court have mobilized the Brazilian police since Wednesday night to try to decipher the reasons that led the author to commit suicide, attacking the statue that represents Justice in the Plaza de los Tres Poderes, in Brasilia, very close to the Planalto Palace and the Congress, where the work and sessions were interrupted. The square, the same one that was attacked by a horde of Bolsonaro supporters on January 8, 2023, has been evacuated and remains under control of security forces. There were no more injuries or major material damage.
The explosion raised the alarm on the eve of the G-20 meeting that will be held in Brazil next week, in Rio de Janeiro, with the presence of world authorities and a special security scheme. The attack also complicates the plans of Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking amnesty for the perpetrators of the attack in January last year, when a crowd entered to destroy the palaces of the three powers.
The perpetrator of the attack was identified a couple of hours after the explosion. The body of Francisco Wanderley Luiz, a right-wing extremist who tried to make a political career in the state of Santa Catarina, remained spread out for hours while police investigated the possibility that he had other explosives with him. His ex-wife declared during interrogation to Federal Police agents that Wanderley’s intention was “to kill Minister Alexandre de Moraes and whoever was with him at the time of the attack.” Moraes is one of the most energetic judges of the Brazilian Supreme Court and has been a thorn in the side of Bolsonaro supporters.
A Brazilian police spokesperson declared in an interview with the Globo network that Wanderley detonated a homemade explosive, already lying on the ground in the square and in front of the statue of the Supreme Court, and that the second bomb exploded minutes later in his car. that parked near a building of the Chamber of Deputies. Images broadcast on television show photos of Wanderley inside the Supreme Court. Police still do not know when that visit would have been.
“The citizen approached the Supreme Court, tried to enter, he did not succeed and the explosion occurred at the door,” reported the governor of Brasilia, Celina Leão, in a press conference, which referred to the suicide as possibly “a “lone wolf.”
The attack occurred at a time when Bolsonaro and sectors of the far-right are negotiating an amnesty for the 66 prisoners remaining from the January 2023 attack, when more than 2,000 people were arrested and taken to prison. According to local press columnists, the attack should toughen the decisions of the Court’s judges.
The event may also affect Bolsonaro’s plans to obtain an amnesty regarding his ineligibility, since he has already said that he wants to be a candidate again, and that he has felt very strengthened by the return of Donald Trump to the Presidency in the United States.
