The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the heads of the legislature and judiciary called on Monday for calm and peace to defend democracy after the attempted coup led by thousands of Bolsonaro radicals on Sunday.
The country needs normality, respect and work to achieve progress and social justice, said a joint note signed by Lula, the chair of Congress and Supreme Court President Rosa Weber.
Joint demonstration of the two Presidents of the Republic who were assassinated in the Manhã de Hoje against the Ontem coup leaders in Brasília. #TeamLula pic.twitter.com/p6dOtuh8S6
— Lula (@LulaOficial) January 9, 2023
The statement, which Lula shared on his social networks, was published on the same day that the police of the Federal District of Brasilia dismantled the camp set up by the Bolsonarists in front of the army headquarters after the October elections.
It was from this camp that Sunday’s attacks on the headquarters of the three powers in Brazil emanated.
Brasilia Military Police agents, reinforced by army troops, blocked access to the camp early Monday to prevent the arrival of more protesters and ordered the peaceful evacuation of those who remained.
The siege quickly took hold and, without the authorities having to use any force, hundreds of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro began collecting their belongings and leaving the place.
In just half an hour, the camp was reduced to the tents and some abandoned infrastructure, along with a handful of protesters rushing to collect mattresses and other paraphernalia.
The peaceful eviction came after Magistrate Alexandre de Moraes, one of the 11 members of the Supreme Court, ordered the dismantling of all camps set up by Bolsonaristas outside military barracks across the country, from which the far-right leader’s supporters came who advocated a coup d’état in Brazil to prevent the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office eight days ago.
The radicals’ camp in Brasilia, set up since the progressive leader’s victory in the second round of presidential elections, served as a base and was the place to which protesters marched into the headquarters of Brazil’s three powers on Sunday after his failed coup attempt.
Moraes, who is in charge of several of the investigations into attacks on democracy against Bolsonaro and his supporters, also ordered that inmates of the camps involved in the attacks be “imprisoned in flagranti for committing various crimes.”
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, together with the President of the Federal Court of Justice (STF) of Brazil, Rosa Weber (3i), and the Ministers Luís Roberto Barroso (2i) and Dias Toffoli (i), chaired a meeting today on the occasion of the arrest of radical Bolsonaro demonstrators on the eve of the Plaza de los Tres Poderes to break into government buildings, in Brasilia (Brazil). Photo: André Coelho/Efe.
The number of radicals in the camp outside army headquarters had been declining since Lula’s inauguration on January 1, and authorities counted about 200 people as of Thursday.
But on Saturday the number had risen to around 3,000 after the Bolsonaristas called for a Sunday demonstration in Brasilia that ended in chaos and attacks on institutions.
In light of the chaos caused by the attack on public buildings, Lula ordered a federal intervention in the security area of Brasilia until January 31, bringing the regional police under federal control.
The attack on Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court was only ended after four and a half hours of confusion as riot police rushed in and fired tear gas at the Augustinates who were inside and outside the Three Powers’ buildings.
According to the latest information, at least 300 people have been arrested for anti-democracy attacks, which have been widely condemned by all Brazilian institutions and the international community.
Presidents and regional groups sent messages to the Brazilian people as soon as the gravity of the events became known.
Bolsonarists invade Brasilia and demand military intervention
This Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was shocked by the incidents.
“I’m in ‘shock’, but I trust Brazil and its institutions,” he said on the sidelines of a Geneva humanitarian aid conference for Pakistan, stressing that “the Brazilians will go ahead and face the situation.”
With information from Efe.