Political violence is a reality in Brazil divided by the presidential election. The atmosphere is extremely tense when the left Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva takes office on Sunday.
The outgoing president, a right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro supporters have blocked roads, burned cars, tried to break into police headquarters and planned a bomb attack on the airport in the capital, Brasília. In addition, thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters have been camping near army bases across the country for weeks.
Supporters believe Bolsonaro’s baseless claims of election fraud, dispute the election result and want to prevent Lula from coming to power.
The security measures for those taking office are indeed unprecedented. The entire federal police force in the capital, Brasília, is at work. The Supreme Court has banned registered gun owners from carrying a gun until Monday.
– One hundred percent of Brasília’s federal police will be deployed to ensure the safety of the president and also foreign delegations and the public, the future Minister of Justice Flavio Dino said on Tuesday.
The main stage of the inauguration is the capital’s central boulevard Eixo Monumental, where hundreds of thousands of Lula’s supporters are expected. If everything goes according to plan, there will be a carnival atmosphere. It is organized on the Boulevard concerts (you switch to another service) throughout the day, and more than 60 Brazilian artists will take the stage.
However, the atmosphere can be lowered by the football legend loved by the whole country Pelé death yesterday Thursday. Three days of mourning have been declared in Brazil.
The details of the security measures for the inauguration have not been made public. For example, the future president has traditionally driven in a convertible from Brasília’s cathedral to the National Congress. Lula would like to follow tradition, but the federal police resist the idea. (you switch to another service) The final decision will be made only on Sunday.
Will Bolsonaro attend?
Lula da Silva won the presidential election held at the end of October with 50.9 percent of the vote. The elections have been described as the most tense in a generation. Bolsonaro’s team sowed doubts about election fraud months before the election day.
Bolsonaro has still not publicly admitted his election defeat, and his party appealed the election result to the court. According to the complaint, there were deviations in the voting machines that could have distorted the election results. The appeal was dismissed.
It is not known whether Bolsonaro intends to hand the presidential belt to Lula at the inauguration, as per tradition. There have been reports in the Brazilian media that Bolsonaro would skip the inauguration entirely and travel to Florida in the United States for New Year’s.
Bolsonaro belongs to the former president of the United States Donald Trump’s to admirers and has been called the Trump of the tropics. Bolsonaro’s refusal to accept an election defeat is reminiscent of Trump. Trump eventually incited his supporters to attempt a takeover of the US Congress.
Bolsonaro has mostly kept a low profile since the election. On December 9, he broke his weeks of silence – at the same time as the election winner Lula announced his first ministerial appointments.
– We will win, Bolsonaro said from his official residence.
Many interpreted the statement as a show of support for Bolsanaro supporters camped near army bases.
The supporters started rioting
When the authorities confirmed Lula’s election victory three days later, Bolsonaro’s supporters took to the streets to riot. They set cars and buses on fire and tried to take over the federal police headquarters in the capital. The police defended themselves with tear gas and rubber bullets.
After the riots subsided, the incoming Minister of Justice, Flavio Dino, called on Bolsonaro’s supporters to return to their homes.
– It is over. The page has been translated. Let’s look ahead. There will be new elections in 2026, Dino said.
Security experts disagreed with Dino’s optimism.
– We do not know if this was just a warning of what is yet to come or if their threat will end, the military relations expert João Roberto Martins Filho The University of São Carlos told the news agency Reuters.
Yesterday, Thursday, the police arrested four people for an alleged attempted revolution during the riot. Arrest warrants had been issued for 11 people, and 21 were wanted.
Bomb at Brasília Airport
On Christmas Eve, the police found a bomb built and planted by Bolsonaro’s supporters near the Brasília airport. The bomb was attached to a tanker truck and an attempt had been made to activate it.
– The serious events in Brazil show that the so-called patriotic camps have become incubators for terrorists, the future Minister of Justice Dino wrote on Twitter.
Dino also published pictures of weapons seized by the police from the protestors’ camp.
A 54-year-old gas station employee was arrested on suspicion of building the bomb. He told the police that he had come to the capital inspired by Bolsonaro’s election fraud allegations.
– The purpose of my trip was to join the protesters who have camped near the army headquarters and wait for the army to give me the order to take up arms and defeat communism, the man told the police during the interrogation.
As weeks passed and nothing happened, the man and other protesters had thought that detonating the bomb might provoke the military to intervene and prevent the “rise of communism” in Brazil.
“Not a lone wolf”
The suspect had brought two shotguns, two revolvers, three pistols, more than a thousand rounds of ammunition and five sticks of dynamite to the capital.
– Bolsonaro always emphasized the importance of arming civilians by saying that armed people can never be enslaved, he explained.
During Bolsonaro’s term, the number of firearms permits in Brazil increased sixfold. There are now about 700,000 registered gun owners in Brazil.
According to Dino, who will become Minister of Justice, the man suspected of planting the bomb is not a lone wolf, but a wider movement.
– There are influential people behind him, and the police are investigating the matter. We will not allow political terrorism in Brazil, Dino said in a television interview on Monday.
Sources: Reuters, AP, AFP
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