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. Police said 300 people had been arrested over the attacks.
The leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, announced a federal security intervention in Brasília – bringing policing under the control of the central government – lasting until 31 January after capital security forces initially were overwhelmed by the invaders. He said the law enforcement bodies showed “incompetence, bad faith or malice” and promised swift action. 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.” He stopped short of condemning the mob outright and instead hit out at Lula’s claims he was responsible.
In a press conference, Lula blamed Bolsonaro and complained about a lack of security in the capital, saying authorities had allowed “fascists” and “fanatics” to wreak havoc. “These vandals, who we could call … fanatical fascists, did what has never been done in the history of this country,” said Lula, who was on an official trip to São Paulo state. “All these people who did this will be found and they will be punished.” The president later toured the wreckage of his presidential palace.
The sight of thousands of yellow-and-green clad protesters running riot in the capital capped months of tension after the 30 October vote. Bolsonaro, an acolyte of Trump who has yet to concede defeat, peddled the false claim that Brazil’s electronic voting system was prone to fraud, spawning a violent movement of election deniers. Bolsonaro flew to Florida 48 hours before the end of his mandate and was absent from Lula’s inauguration. The violence in Brasília could amplify the legal risks Bolsonaro faces. It also presents a headache for US authorities as they debate how to handle his stay in Florida.
Supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Ibaneis Rocha, the pro-Bolsonaro governor of the federal district, where Brasília is located, to be removed from his post for 90 days amid outrage that authorities had failed to prevent the attack. De Moraes wrote that the attacks “could only have happened with the acquiescence, or even direct involvement, of public security and intelligence authorities”.
Two Democrats in the US Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Joaquin Castro, called for Bolsonaro’s extradition from the US. “The US must cease granting refuge to Bolsonaro in Florida,” Ocasio-Cortez said, as she compared the protests to the 6 January storming of the US Capitol. “Nearly two years to the day, the US Capitol was attacked by fascists, we see fascist movements abroad attempt to do the same in Brazil.”
The US president, Joe Biden, condemned what he called the “assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil”, adding that Brazil’s democratic institutions “have our full support and the will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined”.
The supreme court, whose crusading justice Alexandre de Moraes has been a thorn in the side of Bolsonaro and his supporters, was ransacked by the occupiers, according to social media images that showed protesters clubbing security cameras and shattering the windows of the modernist building.
Brasília’s governor, Ibaneis Rocha, wrote on Twitter that he had fired his top security official, Anderson Torres, previously Bolsonaro’s justice minister. The solicitor general’s office said it had filed a request for Torres’ arrest.
