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As thousands of Brazilian supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro rioted in the country’s capital on Sunday, many of them wore a shirt and national symbol appropriated by the former right-wing leader.
After months of protests and road blockades in opposition to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s 2022 election, Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed Brazil’s parliament, presidential palace, and supreme court in Brasilia on Sunday in scenes eerily similar to the January 6, 2021 insurrection in the US.
Photos showed a sea of yellow, with many rioters wearing the Brazilian national soccer team’s iconic canary-colored jersey — which has a long history of being co-opted by right-wing forces in Brazil.
Bolsonaro — who has yet to formally concede his recent election loss — made the jersey a symbol for his supporters as early as 2015, when he became the center of a movement to unseat former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. By the time he won the election in 2018, and in 2022, he urged his supporters to „vote with the yellow jersey!“ according to The Athletic.
Brazil’s most famous current player, Neymar, has shown up as one of Bolsonaro’s biggest supporters, endorsing him multiple times and elevating the link between the jersey and Bolsonaro. When Brazil’s national team won the 2019 Copa America, Bolsonaro sat squarely with the players and trophy, smiling ear to ear as he parroted the win.
By Sunday, thousands of Brazilians wore the jersey as they carried out their assault on democracy.
Brazil’s Ministry of Justice said that over 1,000 people have been arrested, according to CNN.
