The head of state raises serious accusations against the country’s security and secret services: No one warned him about the attack on government buildings on January 8th.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office as Brazilian president to fight poverty and hunger in Brazil, protect the rainforest again – and make South America’s giants a trusted partner in world politics again. But now, just a month into office, the 77-year-old president needs to overhaul the static pillars of his state structure. Because after the dramatic march on January 8, during which supporters of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, freely invaded parliament, the Federal Supreme Court and the presidential palace, the new government does not know which institutions it can still count on.
“Where are the soldiers?”
In midweek, Brazil’s leftist president gave his first TV interview in his third term. It became a bitter inventory. Lula left the federal capital on the night of January 6 to visit victims of a flood in the state of São Paulo. At the time of his departure, however, no security agency had reported any special events to him.