Over 400 arrested as Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazil's Congress
Over 400 people were arrested on Sunday after supporters of Brazil‘s former president Jair Bolsonaro broke through a blockade set up by security forces and invaded ministries and the Congress building in the capital Brasília on Sunday, in violence reminscent of the January 6 storming of the US capital in 2021, The Independent reports.
“We continue working to identify all the others who participated in these terrorist acts this afternoon in the Federal District,” the governor of Brasília, Ibaneis Rocha, wrote on Twitter on Sunday evening. “We continue to work to restore order.”
Video footage obtained by Reuters from Bolsonaro-related groups and video from local broadcasters show protesters storming multiple key federal buildings.
Police have reportedly regained control of the Supreme Court, the presidential palace and the national Congress, according to CNN Brazil.
Brazil’s newly inaugurated president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was on an official trip in Sao Paulo state during the violence, and lawmakers are on recess.
Lula, as he’s commonly known, condemned the attack as an unprecedented crime against Brazil’s democracy.
“These vandals, who we could call fanatical Nazis, fanatical Stalinists … fanatical fascists, did what has never been done in the history of this country,” he said in a press conference declaring a “federal security intervention” in the capital until the end of the month. “All these people who did this will be found and they will be punished.”
The group of rioters crossed a police barrier and climbed the ramp that gives access to the roof of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate buildings.
Protesters wearing yellow and green T-shirts and Brazilian flags attacked some police vehicles securing the building, the Spanish EFE news agency reported. They also destroyed protection barriers.
Footage shared on social media showed hundreds of people pouring into the building. The protesters were met with police tear gas.