Much of institutional Brazil gathered this Monday at one of the crime scenes to commemorate the first anniversary of the coup attempt by thousands of Bolsonaro supporters in Brasilia. At the same time that on January 8, 2023, a mob destroyed stained glass windows, artwork and offices at the headquarters of the three powers, taking selfies and demanding military intervention, a year later the Senate celebrated its victory over democracy and rejected the attack in one Ceremony presided over by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “Today we celebrate the victory of democracy over authoritarianism,” Lula said.
The president wanted to repeat the image of national unity he created the day after the attack, but his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro's political allies prevented him from doing so. The far-right governors were absent from the event using various excuses. Yes, the heads of the armed forces were present.
The Brazilian president has urged his compatriots to avoid triumphalism: “We are saving democracy, but democracy must be protected all day long.” He also recalled his own history and said that only in a democracy does a metallurgist work on his side could achieve the presidency of the republic. “After losing three elections,” he added. He demanded that the judges impose exemplary punishments for those responsible. For Lula, Bolsonaro should be included because he orchestrated the uprising. Supreme Court President Luis Roberto Barroso has ruled that the coup plotters “did not and will not get through.”
The momentary unity in defense of democracy and institutions that was evident in the immediate aftermath of that attack, modeled on the Washington Capitol, has given way a year later to the polarized Brazil of recent times. With a view to local elections at the end of the year, politicians close to the far-right ex-president want to give the impression that they are giving in to rivals or betraying their leader Bolsonaro.
The ceremony, dubbed “Unbreakable Democracy,” was also attended by the justices of the Supreme Court, the President of the Senate and governors allied with the government. At the last minute, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Artur Lira, who was close to Bolsonaro, canceled his presence on the grounds that he had health problems in the family; The strongest opponent, the governor of São Paulo, Tarcisio de Freitas, made it clear from the start that he had no intention of bringing forward his return from a Christmas vacation in Europe.
Other governors also did not want to interrupt their days off to attend an event that they believed was politicized by Lula. Bolsonaro, who was in the United States on the day of the attack, spent his first anniversary away from the capital, in Rio de Janeiro.
Not even in institutional Brazil is there a consensus about the purpose or significance of the massive invasion of the beautiful seat of the Presidency, Congress and Supreme Court, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer. Two months of protests by thousands of Brazilians convinced that Lula's victory was a fraud reached their peak.
While Lula, his political allies and the Supreme Court consider it a coup to seize power, the president's opponents downplay its significance. For them, it was pure vandalism that caused serious damage to property, but did not intend to break the constitutional order. And in any case, even if he tried, he failed.
The Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Morais – whom Bolsonarism considers to be its absolute terror – and who revealed this weekend that the coup plotters' plans included hanging him in the Plaza de los Tres Poderes, has “against impunity, “Appeasement and oblivion” shouted.
The Supreme Court sentenced 30 of the perpetrators of the attack to prison sentences of up to 17 years for crimes such as forcible subversion of the rule of law. Meanwhile, police and judges are still investigating the alleged instigators – including Bolsonaro – and the financiers. That same Monday, police ordered an arrest and more than 40 searches in connection with the case. The political scientist Camila Rocha emphasizes in her column “Folha de S.Paulo” that among the condemned there is a cook or a delivery man who carried a knife, but “no politician, military politician or big businessman”.
Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during the demonstration on the Esplanade of Ministries in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images
Of the two thousand people imprisoned at the time, about a thousand were prosecuted and 66 remain imprisoned. Hundreds ended up in prison, a shock to these white middle-class Brazilians who thought they had gotten away with impunity. Many defendants are under house arrest, with electronic ankle bracelets and a ban on using social networks.
The ceremony took place under strict security measures. Nothing to do with the situation a year ago, when thousands of demonstrators marched from the army headquarters, where they had set up camp, to the Plaza de los Tres Poderes, demanding an intervention that would prevent Lula from seizing power. Police officers escorted them along the street and then allowed them to ignore security barriers and easily enter the Planalto presidential palace, the Supreme Court and the two chambers of parliament. They caused damage worth 24 million reais (five million dollars, 4.5 million euros).
To neutralize the attackers, Lula ordered the intervention of the Brasilia security service in the Federal District and appointed a senior official to intervene. He and the then army commander-in-chief, General Julio César de Arruda, played out one of the most tense and delicate moments of the night. After order was restored, the newly appointed comptroller Ricardo Capelli, number two in the Justice Ministry, went to army headquarters accompanied by several ministers close to Lula. His intention was to disband the camp. Capelli has now revealed the disturbing dialogue with the general:
-The chief of the army to the civilian auditor: “Are you going to enter here with armed men without my permission?”
-I came to inform you.
-I have a little more men than you, right?
After tough exchanges and negotiations, the police operation was postponed until dawn the next day. By this time, most of the campers, including many soldiers and their families, had already left.
On this day last year, as police arrested the remaining coup plotters at the Brasilia headquarters, the congressional conservation team, along with the cleanup brigades, returned to some destroyed buildings. They collected every piece of the destroyed heritage. “We didn’t even know where to start,” says Maria das Grutas Carvalho e Silva shortly before the start of the anniversary ceremony in the Senate. Next to it is a display case with fragments of a red vase given as a gift by a leader of the Chinese Communist Party, part of an exhibition about the restoration of the damaged one. Among other things, a Santos ball, which the thief returned intact after 20 days to a police station in Sorocaba (São Paulo), thousands of kilometers away.
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