RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian authorities vowed Monday to protect democracy and punish thousands of supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed and trashed the nation’s highest seats of power in chaos with striking similarities to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The protesters swarmed into Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace on Sunday. Many have said they want the Brazilian army to restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power and oust the newly inaugurated leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Police broke down a pro-Bolsonaro encampment outside a military building Monday and detained some 1,200 people there, the justice ministry’s press office told The Associated Press.
Lula and the heads of the Supreme Court, Senate and Lower House also signed a letter Monday denouncing acts of terrorism and vandalism and saying they were taking legal measures.
Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro protest against the press and current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as they break camp outside a military base in Rio de Janiero, on Jan. 9, 2023.Bruna Prado / AP
Justice Minister Flávio Dino told reporters police have begun tracking those who paid for the buses that transported protesters to the capital. At the news conference late Sunday, Brazil’s minister of institutional relations said the buildings would be inspected for evidence including fingerprints and images to hold people to account, and that the rioters apparently intended to spark similar unrest nationwide.
“They will not succeed in destroying Brazilian democracy. We need to say that fully, with all firmness and conviction,” Dino said. “We will not accept the path of criminality to carry out political fights in Brazil. A criminal is treated like a criminal.”
Rioters donning the green and yellow of the national flag on Sunday broke windows, toppled furniture, hurled computers and printers to the ground. They punctured a massive Emiliano Di Cavalcanti painting at the presidential palace in seven places and completely destroyed other works of art. They overturned the U-shaped table at which Supreme Court justices convene, ripped a door off one justice’s office and vandalized an iconic statue outside the court. The monumental buildings’ interiors were left in states of ruin.
Monday’s arrests came in addition to the 300 held Sunday while caught in the act.
But police were noticeably slow to react — even after the arrival of more than 100 buses — leading many to ponder whether authorities had either simply ignored numerous warnings, underestimated the protesters’ strength, or been somehow complicit.
Public prosecutors in the capital said local security forces had at very least been negligent. A supreme court justice temporarily suspended the regional governor. Another justice blamed authorities for not swiftly cracking down on budding neofascism in Brazil.