Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has posted a picture from his hospital bed in Florida, having been admitted with adominal pains – a day after some of his hardcore supporters stormed the presidential palace and a number of other federal buildings in capital city of Brasilia.
The former leader thanked supporters for their "prayers and messages” for his “prompt recovery".
Mr Bolsonaro has faced hospital stays and multiple times in recent years with gut blockages after being stabbed while campaigning for the presidency in 2018. He travelled to the United States two days before Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took the office of president on New Year’s Day.
Mr Lula has been quick to blame Mr Bolsonaro, for the unrest over the weekend – with more than 1,200 Bolsonaro supporters said to have been arrested by Monday afternoon, according to the country’s Justice Ministry. Me Lula said of Mr Bolsonaro: “[He] is encouraging this via social media from Miami,” Lula said. “Everybody knows there are various speeches of the ex-president encouraging this.”
Mr Lula had already promised to go after Mr Bolsanaro in his inaugural address, with the former leader already under investigation in four Supreme Court criminal probes before stepping down as president.
Mr Bolsonaro, he repudiated the president’s accusation, without actively dismissing his supporters – although he did say that raiding federal buildings was overstepping the mark. However, that was tempered by Mr Bolsonaro trying to relate the current incident to cross-country protests about the economy in 2013 and 2017.
Writing on Twitter late on Sunday, Mr Bolsanaro said peaceful protest is part of democracy, but that “depredations and invasions of public buildings as occurred today, as well as those practiced by the left in 2013 and 2017, escape the rule.” He made no specific mention of the protesters’ actions in Brasilia.
He also defended his rule: “Throughout my mandate, I have always been acting according to the Constitution, respecting and defending the laws, democracy, transparency and our sacred freedom.”
Brazilian riot police and the military have moved in to clear a camp set-up by supporters of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro outside Brasilia’s military headquarters on Monday, as authorities sought to make sense of the turmoil created by the thousands who stormed the presidential palace and other federal buildings on Sunday – and punish those responsible.
The minister of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes, had ordered the armed forces to dismantle all Bolsonaro supporters’ camps across the country within 24 hours. He also called for police to arrest and imprison any protesters still left in the camps, according to the Federal Supreme Court. Mr De Moraes also ordered the governor of Brasilia, Ibaneis Rocha, to be removed from office for 90 days over alleged security failings. Mr Lula said the local militarised police force that reports to Mr Rocha, a former Bolsonaro ally, did nothing to stop the protesters advancing.
The country's justice minister, Flávio Dino, said on Monday that everyone who “participated in or financed serious crimes this Sunday” are being identified and will “face justice” as soon as Monday or the coming days. Mr Dino added that authorities have identified the license plates of the buses that brought “criminals” to Brasília.
“Many have been apprehended and others will be,” the minister added.
Those who stormed the complex of federal buildings broke windows, toppled furniture and destroyed office equipment at the nation’s highest seats of power in the capital, with the buildings’ interiors were left in states of ruin.
The heads of Brazil’s three branches of government released a joint statement on Monday condemning what they called “terrorist acts” in Brasilia. “We are united so that institutional measures are taken under the terms of Brazilian laws,” they said, calling for “serenity and peace”. Mr Lula, as well as the acting Senate president, Veneziano Vital do Rego, the lower house speaker, Arthur Lira, and the chief justice, Rosa Weber all signed the statement.
Mr Lula was back holding meetings in the presidential palace with his cabinet and Supreme Court ministers on Monday – and also planned to meet his defence minister and armed forces commanders to discuss the attacks.
There are clear similarities between the storming of the US Capitol building in Washington on 6 January 2021 and the weekend violence in Brasilia. In the former episode, then-President Donald Trump refused to condemn his supporters as he was on his way out of the White House.
Mr Bolsonaro may be in no hurry to return to Brazil, where he is accused of instigating the violent election denial movement with baseless claims of electoral fraud, again like Mr Trump.
The United States has not received any official requests from the Brazilian government regarding the status of former President Jair Bolsonaro after his supporters stormed Brazil's Congress, the White House said on Monday.
US national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, travelling with President Joe Biden for a US-Mexico-Canada summit in Mexico City, told reporters that US officials are not in direct contact with Bolsonaro, who is believed to be in suburban Orlando, Florida.
Mr Sullivan said he expected Mr Biden would speak with Mr Lula about the events in Brasilia in recent days but did not know when that would be. Mr Sullivan said he had no information about Mr Bolsonaro himself – or the reports he had been taken to hospital – and said Washington had received no official requests regarding the ex-leader's status in the United States.
"Of course if we did receive such requests, we'd treat them the way we always do, we'd treat them seriously,” he said.
A US consular official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, claimed Mr Bolsonaro had almost certainly entered on an A-1 visa, which are reserved for heads of state, diplomats and other government officials. A second source, a senior former U.S. diplomat, also believed it was almost certain that Mr Bolsonaro had entered on an A-1.
Normally the A-1 is cancelled after the recipient leaves office, but given that Mr Bolsonaro left Brazil and entered the United States before his presidential term officially ended that may not be the case.
A statement from the State Department said that "visa records are confidential under US law; therefore, we cannot discuss the details of individual visa cases."
Pressure will no doubt grow on current Mr Biden to extradite Mr Bolsonaro, with some within his Democratic Party having already called for Mr Bolsanaro’s removal. “Bolsonaro should not be in Florida,” democratic congressman Joaquin Castro told CNN. “The United States should not be a refuge for this authoritarian who has inspired domestic terrorism in Brazil. He should be sent back to Brazil.”
Mr Castro said Bolsonaro, a acolyte of Mr Trump “used the Trump playbook to inspire domestic terrorists”.
This was a view echoed by Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “The US must cease granting refuge to Bolsonaro in Florida,” she tweeted on Sunday. “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.”
Leaders from around the globe have condemned the storming of the federal buildings in Brazil, including Mr Biden, who called it “outrageous”. France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, said that “the will of the Brazilian people and the democratic institutions must be respected” while Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said that “what is happening in Brazil cannot leave us indifferent”.
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak condemned any bid to undermine the peaceful transfer of power, while the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz said: “The violent attacks on democratic institutions are an attack on democracy that cannot be tolerated”.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
