On 8 January 2023, radical supporters of Brazil's former President, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in Brasilia. This comes a week after the newly elected President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula, was inaugurated.
The thousands of rioters bypassed barricades, broke windows, climbed on top of the roof to ravish the three buildings to protest Silva's victory and Bolsonaro's loss in the Presidential Election. The rioters were seen wearing green and yellow shirts, the colors of the National flag and shirts of the football team. They destroyed art works, overturned furniture, and stole the country's original 1988 Constitution. Some of Bolsonaro's supporters are calling for a military intervention to restore his power.
Tensions have been building since leftist Silva won the Presidential election against far-right Bolsonaro in October and this was one of the many incidents of the protests from the latter's supporters.
The riots are being compared to the US capitol riots of 6 January 2021. It has been labeled, "the worst attack on the country's institutions since democracy was restored four decades ago" and has received global condemnation.
President Silva has vowed to bring justice and has requested federal security intervention to investigate and punish the invaders of the buildings. "These people need to be punished in an exemplary way, so that no one dares with the nation flag on their backs or with the shirt of the Brazilian National team pretend to be nationalists or Brazilians and do what they did today," President Silva, told reporters. On Monday, tens of thousands of Brazilians are demonstrating support of democracy in São Paulo.
∎
