BRASILIA: Brazilian security forces cleared protest camps on Monday (Jan 9) and arrested 1,500 people as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned “acts of terrorism” after a far-right mob stormed the seat of power, unleashing chaos on the capital.
Hundreds of soldiers and police mobilised to dismantle an improvised camp outside the army’s headquarters in Brasilia, where about 3,000 supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro had set up tents – used as a base for the sea of protesters who ran riot inside the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court for around four hours Sunday.
Lula, who took office on Jan 1 after a bitterly divisive election win over Bolsonaro, returned to work in the pillaged presidential palace, where AFP reporters saw the wreckage that remained of the previous day’s havoc: trashed artwork and offices, shattered windows and doors, broken glass strewn across the floor, and furniture dragged into a reflecting pool.
Lula, the 77-year-old veteran leftist who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, met with the leaders of both houses of Congress and the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and joined them in condemning what many called the South American country’s version of the Capitol riots in Washington two years ago.
“The three powers of the republic, the defenders of democracy and the constitution, reject the terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred,” they said in a joint statement.
Bolsonaro, who narrowly lost the October elections, was meanwhile hospitalised with abdominal pains, his wife said.
Media reports said the ex-president was admitted to hospital in Orlando, Florida, where the politician dubbed the “Tropical Trump” travelled on the second-to-last day of his term – snubbing Lula’s inauguration, in a break with tradition.
It was the latest in a series of health problems stemming from a stabbing attack that nearly claimed Bolsonaro’s life during his winning 2018 presidential campaign.
Bolsonaro, 67, took to Twitter on Sunday night to condemn the “pillaging” in Brasilia, but rejected Lula’s claim he incited the attacks, and defended the right to “peaceful protests”.
For all the latest world News Click Here
