Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazil’s Congress, calling for military to take control | #elections | #alabama

Updated January 8, 2023 at 5:02 PM ET

Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress in the capital of Brasília on Sunday, calling for the military to take over Brazil’s government.

Many Bolsonaro supporters have refused to accept the far-right former leader’s defeat in elections more than two months ago to the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was sworn in as president a week ago.

Videos and photos of the scenes posted to social media also showed crowds invading and ransacking the nearby presidential palace and Supreme Court. Swarms of the Bolsonaro supporters, known as “Bolsonaristas,” were seen charging past security barriers and clashing with police who appeared to be using pepper spray against them.

Congressional offices were closed as the mob moved up the ramp of the Congress building and climbed on the roof and broke windows.

Some of the crowd, many draped in the Brazilian national flag or its colors, looked to be recording the invasion on their phones.

President da Silva, who was away in São Paulo state, called the storming an act of “barbarism” by a mob of “fascists.”

“Whoever did this will be found and punished,” he wrote on Twitter. “Democracy guarantees the right to free expression, but it also requires people to respect institutions. There is no precedent in the history of the country what they did today. For that they must be punished.”

He also blamed a lack of security for the events.

Flávio Dino, the minister of justice and public security, said the federal government promised reinforcements, in addition to the available forces he said were already at work.

“This absurd attempt” to impose the will by force will not prevail, he said in a tweet.

Since da Silva’s narrow defeat of Bolsonaro in October, Bolsonaro supporters have been protesting the win by camping out in front of army barracks around the country, blocking roads, and calling for armed forces to intervene and overturn the election.

Bolsonaro, a populist in the mold of former U.S. President Donald Trump, has sown doubts about the legitimacy of the election, and has refused to concede defeat.

The scenes mirror that of the Jan. 6, 2021 invasion of the U.S. Capitol, coming just two days after the second anniversary.

The former Brazilian president himself left the country for Florida late last month. The incoming administration had previously downplayed fears of a Jan. 6-style insurrection in Brazil ahead of da Silva’s inauguration, which convened without incident.

Carrie Kahn contributed reporting.

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