BRASILIA: Supporters of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tried to storm the federal police headquarters in the capital Brasilia on Monday, the day the president’s election defeat was confirmed, in post-election violence. .
Reuters witnesses saw Bolsonaro supporters, many in their trademark yellow national soccer jerseys or draped in Brazilian flags, confronting security forces at police headquarters. Police fired stun grenades and tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. Nearby buses and cars were set on fire.
Federal police said the “disturbance” near the headquarters was being handled in cooperation with the capital’s security forces.
According to the judge who ordered his arrest, the violence came after a Bolsonaro supporter was detained for allegedly conducting violent “anti-democratic acts”.
Earlier on Monday, the Federal Electoral Court (TSE) confirmed that Oct. Bolsonaro’s left-wing rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wins 30 elections as president. After months of unsubstantiated suggestions that Brazil’s voting system was rigged, Bolsonaro has neither conceded defeat to Lula nor formally halted the transfer of power.
But some of the president’s most hardline supporters have blocked highways in protest and camped out in front of army barracks, calling for a military coup to remove Lula from office.
Hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters gathered outside the presidential residence on Monday afternoon with banners calling for “military intervention”. The president joined them in public prayer but did not address the crowd.
Read more: Bolsonaro challenges Brazil’s election, loses to Lula
“The inauguration is not going to happen,” said Jose Trindad, 58, one of Bolsonaro’s supporters in the crowd. “Bolsonaro was re-elected, but he stole it. So only the military can put things in order.
Conspiracy theories and the resulting violence have brought back memories of the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former US President Donald Trump. It also raises security concerns about Jan. 1, when Lula took office in a public ceremony in Brasilia.
Senator Randolph Rodriguez, a key Lula aide, said there were concerns about the physical safety of Lula and Vice President-elect Geraldo Alcman, as protesters surrounded the hotel where they are staying in Brasilia. Lula’s team denied reports that Lula would be airlifted from the hotel by helicopter.
Brasilia public security officials said they had secured the area around Lula’s hotel, and asked motorists to avoid the city center where many roads were closed.