AFP
Lula obtains support to condemn “vandals” who attacked Brasilia
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva obtained strong support from Brazil’s political and judicial power on Monday, a day after supporters of ex-right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro invaded official buildings in the capital, causing severe damage. “We are not going to allow democracy to escape our hands,” promised the leftist on Monday night in a meeting with 23 of the 27 governors in Brasilia, after which he descended the ramp of the Planalto Palace, the government house, which suffered considerable damage, with the heads of state to the Supreme Court. The 77-year-old president, who assumed power for the third time a week ago after defeating Bolsonaro in the October presidential elections, had earlier led an unusual joint statement with the heads of the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Supreme Court. . The heads of the three powers of the State closed ranks against the “acts of terrorism” on Sunday, when thousands of supporters of the ex-president of the extreme right invaded for almost four hours the headquarters of the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court demanding a military intervention. to remove Lula from power. At the moment, according to the Minister of Justice and Security, Flavio Dino, 1,500 people have been arrested for the excesses, which occurred while Lula was visiting a municipality in Sao Paulo (southeast) affected by rains. The condemnation was also echoed in the streets of Sao Paulo, on the iconic Paulista Avenue, where late at night thousands of people gathered to “defend democracy” and demand “prison for the coup plotters.” “I did not live what I have lived to see what I saw yesterday, that my town, my land, is divided in this way. It is inadmissible, sad, being here is being in defense of democracy,” Edi Valladares told AFP. a 61 year old teacher. – “Unwavering” support from the US – Lula delivered early at the government headquarters, despite the visible damage to the structure, such as broken windows and vandalized offices. The incidents were reminiscent of the attacks on the Capitol in Washington two years ago, carried out by supporters of then-US President Donald Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro. The acts in the Brazilian capital were condemned in unison by the international community, with US President Joe Biden giving Lula unrestricted support. In a phone call, “Biden expressed the United States’ unwavering support for democracy in Brazil,” the White House said in a statement, adding that the US president invited Lula to visit him “in early February.” The leftist leader, who according to the text accepted the invitation, was emphatic throughout the day about the need to punish those responsible for the riots and their possible financiers. Most of the 1,500 detainees, according to Minister Dino, were in a camp in Brasilia from where a good part of the attackers left and which was dismantled on Monday after an order from a Supreme Court judge. Police and military also erected similar structures in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, installed in front of army centers for two months to demand a military intervention that was intended to prevent Lula’s return to power. “I do not agree with what was done yesterday. It is vandalism, it is destroying our heritage,” Ionar Bispo, a 43-year-old resident of the capital, told AFP. – Bolsonaro hospitalized – The forces of order were also criticized for their late and unprepared response. “There was, I would say, incompetence, bad will or bad faith on the part of the people who take care of the public security of the Federal District,” Lula questioned on Sunday. The president decreed that day a federal intervention that gives special powers to his government to restore order in the capital, which had already recovered calm on Monday. And Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes suspended for 90 days from his functions the governor of Brasilia, Ibaneis Rocha, who had just apologized for security “failures” and fired the secretary of that portfolio, Anderson Torres, a former minister of Bolsonaro. “There was no need for security, there were police. They needed to act,” said Pedro Sabino Rapatoni, a 21-year-old administrative assistant. Lula blamed Bolsonaro’s “speeches” for having “stimulated” the “fascist vandals”. The now former president, who left for the United States two days before Lula’s inauguration, condemned the “looting and invasion of public buildings” and described the accusations of his successor as “unfounded.” Bolsonaro was hospitalized and is under observation for discomfort in the abdomen, an area where he was stabbed in 2018 during a rally, his wife Michelle reported Monday. The ex-president then published a photograph on Twitter in which he is seen bedridden in a hospital in Orlando (Southeast Florida). The United States has not yet received a request from the Brazilian government about Bolsonaro, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. rsr-raa/msi/ll
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