On July 30th, staff at the Mato Grosso state legislature in Cuiabá, Brazil, arrived for what was presumably a standard day of lawmaking to find the building had been invaded. This time it wasn’t January 6th-ers. It was a different kind of rodent. A group of profoundly unbothered capybaras had strolled in through the front door, surveyed the legislative chamber, and made themselves at home like many times before.
Staffer Nayara Bueno filmed the visit and attempted to redirect the animals back toward the park next door. “They show up here quite often,” she said, “so we’ve gotten used to seeing them.” The building sits right next to a park, which is a prime location for capybaras with political aspirations.
There is something about a capybara walking into a room full of politicians and simply existing there, calm, sociable, entirely indifferent to the weight of the occasion, that functions as an accidental piece of performance art. No agendas or press releases. Just one chilled dude going about it’s business with his cohorts. Politicians can take a page from their book.
