Brazil’s ex-President Jair Bolsonaro has been admitted to a US hospital with abdominal pain a day after his supporters stormed Brasilia demanding military intervention against his loss in the October election, according to his wife.
For the past 10 weeks, supporters of the ousted far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had camped outside Brazilian Army headquarters, demanding that the military overturn October’s presidential election. And for the past 10 weeks, the protesters faced little resistance from the government.
Then, on Sunday, many of the camp’s inhabitants left their tents in Brasília, the nation’s capital, drove a few miles away and, joining hundreds of other protesters, stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential offices.
The Bolsonaro supporters who stormed the Planalto Palace, the office of the president, on Sunday vandalized several works from revered Brazilian artists, including the painter Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, the palace said on Monday after a preliminary assessment of the damage to its collection.
The Planalto Palace had one of the most important art collections in the country, particularly for Brazilian Modernism, said Rogério Carvalho, the director of curatorship of the presidential palaces. “The value of what was destroyed is incalculable because of the history it represents,” he said in a statement.
Security forces have detained around 1500 people following the storming of government buildings in Brasília, and dismantled a camp of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro in the capital, Brazilian officials have confirmed.
After thousands of Mr Bolsonaro's backers attacked Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace on Sunday local time, police in riot gear amassed at the pro-Bolsonaro camp outside Brasília's army headquarters while troops took down tents, Reuters witnesses said. The protesters were dispersed.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, promised to bring those responsible for the violence to justice after demonstrators broke windows and furniture, destroyed artwork, and stole guns and artefacts.
Lula, who took office on 1 January after a narrow October election win, was back at work at the Planalto presidential palace on Monday and met with his defence minister and the armed forces commanders to discuss the attacks that recalled the assault on the US Capitol two years ago by backers of former president Donald Trump.
US President Joe Biden joined other world leaders in condemning Sunday's riots, calling them "outrageous," while Mr Bolsonaro, who has been in Florida since last year, denied inciting his supporters and said the rioters had "crossed the line".
Mr Bolsonaro was admitted to a hospital in Florida on Monday with intestinal discomfort due to a stabbing he suffered during the 2018 election campaign, his wife announced on Instagram.
Pro-Bolsonaro truckers, who have caused havoc on Brazil's highways for weeks, held more protests through the night.
A toll road operator for the BR 163 highway that cuts through Brazil's top grain-producing state Mato Grosso reported several blockades that were cleared by dawn.
Police said blockages on another highway in Parana state were also cleared.
"There are still people trying to block roads and access to oil refineries," presidential spokesman Paulo Pimenta told reporters.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the governor of Brasília removed from office late on Sunday for 90 days over alleged security failings, and demanded that social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok block accounts of users spreading anti-democratic propaganda.
Brazilian investigators, taking stock of the damage around the capital and questioning detained protesters, face several major questions as they piece together how rioters briefly seized the seats of Brazil’s government.
The protesters, supporters of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, had been camping out since he lost October’s election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Mr. Bolsonaro had asserted without any proof that Brazil’s election systems were rife with fraud, but he agreed to a transition of power to Mr. Lula after the election.
The pro-Bolsonaro protesters claimed the election was stolen, though Brazil’s military and independent experts found no credible evidence of voter fraud.
Now, investigators will focus in part on how the demonstration on Sunday was organized, and on how it transformed into a violent riot. In the days after Mr. Lula took office on Jan. 1, there were widespread calls on social media for a huge demonstration in the capital, Brasília.
Those calls circulated among supporters of Mr. Bolsonaro mostly on two apps, WhatsApp and Telegram. Some messages urged people to organize attacks against critical infrastructure, such as oil refineries and roadblocks. On Telegram, some called for the storming of the Monumental Axis, the avenue that goes directly to major government buildings.
According to an intelligence briefing by the military police of Brasília, at least 100 buses carrying 4,000 demonstrators arrived between Friday and Sunday. It was not immediately clear where the social media calls first originated, or how the caravans of buses were organized.
According to an intelligence briefing by the military police of Brasília, at least 100 buses carrying 4,000 demonstrators arrived between Friday and Sunday. It was not immediately clear where the social media calls first originated, or how the caravans of buses were organized.
Most of the people who arrived in recent days stayed in an encampment in the capital that supporters of Mr. Bolsonaro had maintained in front of the army’s headquarters since the election in October.
It was also not clear why the rioters were able to breach government buildings — Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential offices — so easily. State police officers had tried to repel them, but they were far outnumbered.
Eventually, the military retook control of the buildings, and the authorities began to make arrests. The authorities had arrested at least 200 people as of late Sunday, according to Brazil’s justice minister, though Ibaneis Rocha, the governor of the district that includes Brasília, said that evening more than 400 people had been arrested.
At least 1,200 people were detained for questioning, a police spokesman said on Monday. Some could be charged with committing crimes against democratic institutions or with attempting to unseat a democratically elected government, he said.
Overnight, a Supreme Court judge suspended Mr. Rocha, a supporter of Mr. Bolsonaro’s re-election campaign, for 90 days while investigations take place into security failures. Mr. Rocha on Sunday called the riots an act of terrorism, and said on Twitter that the hundreds of people arrested in the aftermath would “pay for the committed crimes.”
Mr. Lula signed an emergency decree late Sunday that put federal authorities in charge of security in Brazil’s capital, and the dismantling of protest camps has since proceeded peacefully. Brazil’s Congress was called back from recess for an emergency session.
Mr. Bolsonaro, who appeared to be in Florida, criticized the protests on Sunday evening, saying on Twitter that peaceful demonstrations were part of democracy, but that “destruction and invasions of public buildings, like what occurred today,” were not. He also repudiated Mr. Lula’s comments that he bore some responsibility for the riots, saying those accusations were “without proof.”
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