On January 8, 2023, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro broke into the headquarters of the Three Powers in Brasilia. A week after Lula's inauguration, the institutions were looted and destroyed. An official ceremony will take place this Monday to commemorate the events.
First change: 08/01/2024 – 11:44 Last change: 08/01/2024 – 11:48
4 mins
With our correspondent in Rio de Janeiro, Sarah Cozzolino
President Lula wants to make the January 8 event a great event for democracy, and the ceremony is titled “Unbreakable Democracy.” To commemorate the attack on federal power in Brazil by supporters of former President Bolsonaro, the executive branch has organized an event at which representatives of the various powers will be present: the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and the Supreme Court.
A total of 500 guests: elected representatives, people in power, personalities from different political fields. But several opposition members declined the invitation, citing scheduling conflicts: it was summer vacation in Brazil, and some preferred to travel rather than take part in the event.
The absence of some numbers from the right shows that the “union” Lula boasted about is still a long way off. This is particularly true for the powerful governor of Sao Paulo, Tarcisio Freitas, former minister of Jair Bolsonaro and often seen as a presidential candidate: he announced that he was vacationing in Europe.
A security facility with more than 2,000 military police is planned. Almost four times more than on January 8, 2023. On that day, a week after Lula was sworn in for his third term, thousands of demonstrators stormed the Plaza de los Tres Poderes in the heart of Brasilia, the capital founded in 1960 and a symbol of modernity, built by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
Jair Bolsonaro, convicted
Rejecting the defeat of their candidate in the October 2022 elections, these supporters of Jair Bolsonaro attacked the presidential office, Congress and Supreme Court buildings and demanded military intervention. The damage to furniture and works of art was enormous. The scenes were similar to the attack on the capital Washington a year earlier.
Attack on the Brazilian Congress by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro on January 8, 2023. Archive. AFP – SERGIO LIMA
“I believe that there is a person directly responsible who planned all this and who previously cowardly hid and left Brasilia: the former president of the republic,” Lula told Brazilian media Metrópolis on Friday, without providing any evidence. This opinion is shared by a congressional investigative commission that is calling for a trial to be opened against Jair Bolsonaro. The former president was already sentenced to eight years of disqualification last July for questioning the reliability of Brazil's electronic voting system before the last presidential election.
In the USA, on the day of the attacks, he “went and let his subordinates do” what he wanted, Lula accused.
Today and since his defeat, Jair Bolsonaro is nowhere to be seen: he is in Angra dos Reis, in his holiday home in the state of Rio. On the other hand, he is not afraid to provoke controversy. On Friday, he again stated on CNN that the invasion of Brasilia's Plaza de los Tres Poderes was a “trap of the left” and denied that his supporters intended to stage a coup.
Since the trials began in September, around thirty of them have already been convicted of various crimes, including an attempted coup, and three of them received prison sentences of between 14 and 17 years. In total, more than 230 people are still waiting for a court decision. In an interview with the newspaper O Globo a few days ago, Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes revealed that the mutineers planned to assassinate him.
Massive rejection of the riots
According to a recent poll, 89% of Brazilians disagree with the Brasilia revolt. This date will undoubtedly go down in the history of the country, said Andrei, a resident of Rio de Janeiro, in an interview with RFI. “It is an act of vandalism that we will not forget. I think those who did it idolized Bolsonaro, but today.” It seems to me that “people are a little less fanatical when it comes to politics.”
While the Supreme Court investigation suggests that the former president is the intellectual author of the events, Paulo, also from Rio, believes on the contrary: “The protesters were imprisoned, sacrificed and treated like animals. But it was all a trap that had to be condemned.” Bolsonaro and his supporters. Because to me the thugs were intruders from the other side.”
A year later, polarization in Brazilian society is still very strong. Fernanda, a Lula voter, made a radical decision: “Before I spent my time posting my opinions on the Internet. Now I have stopped expressing my ideas, I don't talk about politics anymore. Because I'm afraid to talk about it. We are in a democracy: “We shouldn’t be afraid to speak out, but unfortunately that’s how it is.”
On social media, some right-wing extremist groups are calling for demonstrations in other major Brazilian cities on Monday, but turnout is expected to be low.