Hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters gathered outside the presidential residence on Monday afternoon (Tuesday AEDT) with banners calling for “military intervention”. The president joined them for a public prayer but did not address the crowd.
“There’s not going to be an inauguration,” said Jose Trindade,58,a Bolsonaro supporters in the crowd. “Bolsonaro was re-elected,but they stole it. So only the army can put things in order.”
The conspiracy theories and subsequent violence have rekindled memories of the January 2021 invasion of the US Capitol by supporters of former US president Donald Trump. It also raises security concerns about January 1,when Lula takes office in a public ceremony in Brasilia.
Senator Randolfe Rodrigues,a key Lula aide,said there were concerns about the physical safety of Lula and Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin,as protesters had surrounded the hotel where he is staying in Brasilia. Lula’s team denied reports that Lula would be removed from the hotel by helicopter.
Brasilia’s public security officials said they had secured the area around Lula’s hotel,and urged motorists to avoid the centre of the city where many roads had been closed.
The violence in Brasilia came after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes,who has led probes into Bolsonaro and his allies,on Monday ordered the temporary arrest of José Acácio Tserere Xavante for allegedly carrying out anti-democratic acts.
Xavante,an indigenous leader,is among the Bolsonaro supporters who have protested in defiance of the October 30 election result.
“I cannot accept criminals reigning in Brasil,” Xavante tweeted last month. “Lula cannot be certified.”
Protesters tried to break into the federal police building where Xavante was being held,but failed to free him. Demonstrations then spilled over to other parts of the city,including near a shopping centre where several cars were set on fire.
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Last week,Bolsonaro broke weeks of post-election silence to say that his situation “hurts my soul”. He said the armed forces were the last standing barrier to socialism in Brazil.
“Who decides where I go are you. Who decides which way the armed forces go are you,” Bolsonaro told his supporters at the gates of the presidential residence on Friday.
In a statement,the Supreme Court said Moraes “decreed the temporary arrest,for 10 days,of the indigenous José Acácio Serere Xavante,due to evidence of the commission of crimes of threat,persecution and violent abolition of the Democratic State of Law”.
It said Xavante had led protests across Brasilia and had used “his position as chief of the Xavante people to enlist indigenous and non-indigenous people to commit crimes,” threatening Lula and Supreme Court justices.
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Xavante had “expressly summoned armed people to prevent the certification of elected” politicians,the statement added. “His temporary jailing is the only measure able to guarantee the investigation.”
Reuters,Bloomberg