What was finally assumed yesterday came true: in mid-January, as happened in the United States in 2021, followers of former President Jair Bolsonaro invaded Congress, the Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court.
For months, various actors have warned that, as happened with the storming of the United States Capitol at the hands of Donald Trump’s followers, something similar could happen in Brazil.
Both the attack in the US and yesterday’s can be attributed to the rhetoric of Trump and Bolsonaro themselves, since both have formulated unfounded accusations of electoral fraud and have not recognized their respective defeats in the presidential elections.
After the capital’s security forces were overwhelmed by the invaders, President Lula da Silva, who was in São Paulo, announced a federal security intervention in Brasilia that will last until January 31.
In addition, the governor of Brasilia, Ibaneis Rocha, an ally of former president Jair Bolsonaro, expelled the security secretary, Anderson Torres, whom he blamed for the invasion.
Precisely, in a press conference, Lula complained about the lack of security in the capital: “These vandals, who we could call fanatical Nazis, fanatical fascists, have done what had never been done in the history of this country (…) All these people will be found and will be punished.”
“This genocide (Bolsonaro) is encouraging him through social networks in Miami. Everyone knows that there are several speeches by the former president encouraging him,” he added.
Bolsonaro, who traveled to Florida in the United States before Lula took office on Jan. 1, has not spoken about it publicly. For his part, the president of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto, assured that this demonstration “represents neither the party nor the former president”.
Eventually, about three hours after the first reports of the invasion, the security forces managed to regain control of the three buildings.
As expected, the world rejected the facts: President Alberto Fernández considered that “democracy is the only political system that guarantees freedoms and obliges us to respect the popular verdict”.
Therefore, he expressed his “rejection of what is happening in Brasilia. My unconditional support for Lula in the face of this attempted coup”.
“Those who try to ignore the will of the majority threaten democracy and deserve not only the corresponding legal sanction, but also the absolute rejection of the international community (…) We stand together with the Brazilian people to defend democracy and never again allow the return of the coup ghosts that the right promotes,” he added.
Finally, he anticipated that, as president of CELAC and Mercosur, he warned the member countries of these organizations to unite in this situation.
The Colombian Gustavo Petro said that “fascism decides to carry out a coup. The right has failed to keep the pact of non-violence”, while the Chilean Gabriel Boric said that “the Brazilian government has our full support against this coward and cowardly attack on democracy”.
For his part, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, posted on his Twitter account: “We condemn the attacks on the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court of Brazil. Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable”.
In this sense, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, published on the same social network that “the will of the Brazilian people and democratic institutions must be respected. President Lula can count on the unconditional support of France”.
“All my support to President Lula and to the freely and democratically elected institutions of the Brazilian people. We strongly condemn the assault on the Brazilian Congress and demand an immediate return to democratic normality,” added Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, who was one of the leaders present at the inauguration of Lula.
