Array
Thousands of supporters of Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro invaded the country’s congress, presidential palace and supreme court on Sunday, in a grim echo of the US Capitol invasion two years ago by backers of former president Donald Trump.
About 6.30pm local time, three hours after initial reports of the invasion, security forces managed to retake the three buildings, Brazilian media reported. TV images showed dozens of rioters being led away in handcuffs. Brasília’s governor, Ibaneis Rocha, said 400 people had been arrested in connection with the attacks.
The leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, announced a federal security intervention in Brasília lasting until 31 January after capital security forces initially were overwhelmed by the invaders. Lula, as the president is widely known, defeated Bolsonaro in election run-offs last year.
Bolsonaro responded to Sunday’s attacks with social media posts defending his record in government while saying invasion of public buildings crossed the line. “Peaceful demonstrations, within the law, form part of democracy,” he wrote on Twitter. “However, depredations and invasions of public buildings like those that happened today, as well as those practiced by the left in 2013 and 2017, are exceptions to the rule.
