Bolsonaristas invade and ransack the seat of Brazil’s three branches of government
January 8th is a date that will live in infamy in Brazil. On a cloudy afternoon this past Sunday, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters converged on the seat of government in Brasília, the Praça dos Tres Poderes, the Plaza of the Three Powers. They came by car and by busloads from outside the Federal District and invaded the Congress, Supreme Court and the Palácio do Planalto, the office of the president. In the shadow of the monumental bronze sculpture of Os Guerreiros, a tribute to the candangos who worked to build the new capital of Brazil in the late 1950s, the rioters ravaged the key buildings of all three branches of government.
Photo by Daniel Costa on Unsplash
The inauguration of Lula, the new president, occurred under sunny skies on January first without incidents of violence. The ceremony was heavily secured and most of the country heaved a collective sigh of relief at the peaceful transfer of power. Bolsonaro had lost in the closest election in history, a runoff on October 30th. Bolsonaro never acknowledged he lost but allowed the transition to occur through his chief of staff. Typically a vociferous firebrand, Bolsonaro was uncharacteristically silent. I was in Brasília from mid-October to early December, and highly educated family members told me that the vote was fraudada, fraudulent. When I asked what evidence they had, they vaguely referred to “analysis” they saw online. An Uber driver told me with confidence that “the inauguration of Lula will not occur.” I asked him what that meant, and he said, “Just that it won’t occur. The election was rigged and stolen.”
Two days before the inauguration, Bolsonaro left the country on an Air Force jet with his family and advisers, landing in Orlando. This allowed him to avoid the ceremonial passing of the presidential sash to Lula. Bolsonaro famously spoke indirectly about the possibility of a coup d’etat in August 2021, telling a group of evangelical leaders in Goiânia that he had only three alternatives, “prison, death or victory.” Apparently there was a fourth option, run away to the suburbs of Disney World, stay at the home of a mixed martial arts fighter, wander around Publix supermarket and eat KFC by himself.
Bolsonaro spoke elliptically during that same speech in 2021 about being a president that doesn’t desire “ruptures,” but “everything has its limits.” The onslaught of misinformation about Brazil’s voting system was incessant, and by the time he lost the 2022 presidential race, large elements of the population believed the lies. After the runoff, Bolsonaro supporters blocked highways throughout the country as federal highway police averted their eyes. A federal court mandated their removal and things were back to relatively normal a few days later. Supporters camped outside military facilities around the country, imploring, demanding and praying for intervention to reinstall Bolsonaro. There were incidents of attacks on government in Brasília with crowds setting fire to vehicles, but things largely simmered down by the day of the inauguration.
Bolsonaro made a few weak expressions for peace and non-violence, but his supporters seemed certain he really thought otherwise. Political scientist Jairo Nicolau was quoted in the Washington Post on the day of the riots: “His [Bolsonaro’s] silence was the major spark that lit the protests that are now happening.”
On the afternoon of January 8th the crowds converged on the center of government, a sea of canary yellow pouring up the ramp to the presidential palace and onto the roof of the congress building, surrounding the iconic upturned bowl. They wore the soccer jerseys of Brazil’s national team and sported the Brazilian flag like superman capes, symbols coopted by the Bolsonarist movement. They smashed windows with metal barriers repurposed for destruction, gaining entry to the iconic buildings and laying waste to precious works of art, smashing furniture and setting off fire prevention systems resulting in water damage. In some cases military police (PM) stood by and allowed the rioters to enter without stopping them, took selfies and watched the activities from a distance, even escorting rioters into the government facilities. See images of the rioters in action here and here.
Ibaneis Rocha, governor of the federal district (DF), where Brasília is located, posted a video on Twitter saying he was sorry for the lapses in security and the riots were “simply unacceptable.” This rang hollow given that he is a long-time vocal and ardent supporter of Bolsonaro, and intelligence predicting busloads of protesters were converging on Brasília had been available for some time.
Who dropped the ball, then? It’s being reported that part of the lapses were attributable to Lula’s administration, but my take is that had the new government cracked down on people before crimes were committed, they would have been suppressing free speech. Once the attacks occurred, Lula spoke out swiftly and put DF security under federal control by declaring a state of emergency. Alexandre Moraes of the supreme electoral court removed Ibaneis Rocha from the governorship for 90 days.
The police then moved in and immediately arrested 300 rioters and detained another 1,200. Those caught in the act are subject to the “em flagrante” laws in Brazil, which provides for conviction without trial. Security forces demanded the manifests of all 100 buses that transported rioters to Brazil in an effort to locate more perpetrators and identify who provided the financing. Rumors are swirling that funders were titans of agrobusiness, a huge and wealthy faction of Bolsonarism.
On the day of the invasions, Bolsonaro posted a photo of himself in a hospital bed on social media, saying that the had complications from his previous abdominal stabbing during the 2018 campaign with adhesions causing intestinal blockage. He was discharged within hours. Bolsonaro entered the US on a diplomatic visa, which requires that he leave in 30 days. If he returns to Brazil he may face criminal exposure for acts during his presidency now that he does not have immunity from prosecution as president.
While these despicable events bear similarities to the US’s January 6th attack on the capitol, there are important differences. Certainly in Brazil they attacked all three branches of government, but there were no deaths and perpetrators were swiftly arrested rather than being allowed to leave the scene of the crime. What is certain is that Bolsonaro closely followed Trump’s “fraudulent, stolen election” playbook, with the guidance and counsel of notorious Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Jason Miller. Bannon recorded a video in November 2022 where he stops just short of inciting a coup, while issuing an ominous warning and calling Bolsonaro “the best guy on the planet” to resist what he calls election rigging.
What did Bolsonaro’s supporters expect to gain as a result of their attack on the architectural icons of the capitol? Certainly many seemed to enjoy a party atmosphere, posting selfies and videos once inside the government buildings. The inauguration of Lula had already occurred, but many seemed to believe that their acts would push the military into taking control of the country.
Bolsonaro supporters remain disgruntled, but I hope some of them will get out their 10-foot-poles after the shameful debacle on January 8th. They continue to call Lula a criminal, because he was released from prison where he was serving a term for kickbacks on improvements to his personal residence, due to bias on the part of the sentencing judge, and not specifically exonerated. They seem blind to the possibility that Bolsonaro himself is a criminal. Among other things, Bolsonaro and his sons bought 51 properties valuing in the millions of dollars with cash over the years. The deaths of 700,000 Brazilians during the Covid-19 pandemic are directly attributable to Bolsonaro’s shambolic policies. Pending criminal and electoral probes are somewhat more pedestrian: misinformation, misuse of the federal police to protect his sons, operating a misinformation troll farm. Lula said in his inaugural speech that he harbored no plans for revenge, but that those who erred would be held responsible. I think Lula is too good a politician to push for the prosecution of his predecessor, which would turn Bolsonaro into a martyr and further inflame the emotions of his supporters. It remains an open question whether Bolsonaro will return to Brazil from Florida at the end of this month.