Brazil police amass at protest camp after capital stormed

Brazilian police deployed at a camp of supporters of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro in the capital on Monday, a day after rioters launched the worst attack on Brazil’s state institutions since its return to democracy in the 1980s.

Hundreds of police in riot gear and some on horseback amassed at the encampment near Brasilia’s army headquarters, while soldiers in the area withdrew, Reuters witnesses said, after Sunday’s storming by thousands of Bolsonaro’s backers of Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro’s leftist rival who took office on January 1 after a narrow October election win, promised to bring those responsible for the violence to justice, after demonstrators broke windows and furniture, destroyed artwork and stole guns and artefacts.

US President Joe Biden joined other world leaders in condemning the attacks, calling them “outrageous”, while Bolsonaro who is now in Florida denied inciting his supporters and said the rioters had “crossed the line”.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the governor of Brasilia removed from office late on Sunday for 90 days over alleged security failings. He also ordered social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to block accounts of users spreading anti-democratic propaganda.

Lula, a former union organiser who was also president from 2003 to 2010, said the local militarised police force that reports to Brasilia Governor Ibaneis Rocha, a former Bolsonaro ally, did nothing to stop the protesters from advancing.
Dawn.com, 9 Jan, 2023