Within 24 hours of the coup attempt in Brazil, police have arrested more than 1,200 people and thousands of Brazilians who have been streaming in the streets of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo and demanding retribution against supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
“The act of domestic terrorism in Brazil is not just about attacks on public buildings: the target is our democracy,” Karin Costa Vazquez, Professor, Assistant Dean and Executive Director of the Center for African Latin American and Caribbean Studies at OP Jindal Global University tells Financial Express Online.
Sharing his view with Financial Express Online, Roberto Rodolfo Georg Uebel, Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM), Porto Alegre, Brazil, says, “The return of political violence in Brazil contrasts with the motto of the new government of Lula da Silva, which is formed by a broad centre-left coalition, which is “Union and Reconstruction”. Lula, a political leader trained in the re-democratization of Brazil, was categorical in his speech condemning domestic terrorism seen on Sunday and in the early hours of Monday he met with the heads of other powers and governors of all states, in order to draw up a reconstruction plan for the Federal Capital and punish all those who were directly and indirectly involved in the invasions of public buildings. Brazilian democracy, despite threats from false patriots and fascists, is still breathing.
People demand action
People are penning their protests through banners and posters and chanting jail time for those who stormed Brazil’s capital on Sunday and those who encouraged them. According to reports coming from Rio quoting Federal Police, there are plans to indict at least 1000 of those who have been rounded up and they are being transferred to the nearby Papuda prison.
Sharing her opinion Ms Vazquez says, “A criminal horde that lost the elections wants to regain power by force. Government, Congress and Justice need to act. Identifying and punishing those responsible for what happened, those who acted or omitted themselves, in addition to their financiers, is the least that is expected for the maintenance of the democratic rule of law in the country. The bolsonarista project of destruction and hatred was defeated on October 30, 2022. The result of the ballot boxes must be respected.”
Says Roberto Rodolfo Georg Uebel, “The last 24 hours have been perplexing and are testing the Brazilian democracy and its republican institutions at a level never before witnessed by the young Latin American nation. Hundreds of vandals invaded public buildings, palaces and the headquarters of the three powers in the capital, Brasilia: The Planalto Palace, seat of the Executive Power, the Palace of the National Congress, where the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies are located, and the Palace of the Supreme Court.”
Escorted by military police from the Federal District, who offered little or no resistance, nor did they protect public buildings, modernist constructions listed by the federal government and by international organizations, supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, a former far-right president who left office a week ago, they invaded the palaces, pillaged and destroyed artworks and plundered everything they found in front of them.
“Dissatisfied with the defeat in the two rounds of the presidential election held in October 2022, bolsonaristas, as Bolsonaro’s far-right and fascist supporters are known, claimed in their protests that they would restore power, according to them, emanated from the people, and would remove Lula da Silva, sworn in a week ago, and his cabinet,” Roberto Rodolfo Georg Uebel who is also Senior Fellow at the South American Institute for Policy and Strategy (ISAPE), states.
The chaos in the Federal Capital quickly gained repercussions on social networks and in the Brazilian press, whose journalists who covered the invasions were also persecuted by fanatical bolsonaristas and who, ironically, having “freedom” as their motto, was totally contrary to freedom of the press. “It is also important to note that social networks such as Telegram and WhatsApp were the main tools where they organized the coup attempts and terrorist attacks seen yesterday in Brasília,” he says.
According to Prof Uebel, “Unlike the invasion that took place at the Capitol of the United States two years ago, the terrorist attacks in Brasilia did not only have the objective of reversing the result of the elections, but rather to overthrow the democratic State governed by the rule of law and bring chaos to the Federal Capital, in order to, according to their arguments, compel the Armed Forces to intervene and install a military regime, making possible an unrealistic return of Jair Bolsonaro, who fled to Florida days before the end of his term, knowing that he could be arrested as soon as he returned to Brazil.”