More than 1500 supporters of Brazil’s far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro invaded the highest seats of power of the Brazilian state on January 8, just one week after Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, popularly known as Lula, was sworn in as president. In troubling videos, Bolsonaro supporters smashed windows, furniture, and extensively damaged the country’s Congress building, Supreme Court, and Presidential Palace in Brazil’s capital city of Brasilia. It is estimated that pro-Bolsonaro rioters caused millions of dollars of damage to historic artwork, heritage items, and numerous priceless artifacts from Brazilian history.
“They have destroyed national heritage,” Michelle Fernandez, a researcher at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Brasilia, tells The Progressive.
“[This small group of Bolsonaro supporters] is willing to harm Brazilian democracy,” Fernandez says. “It is a group that has its clear objectives. Not only do they not recognize the elections, they want Bolsonaro to be in power.”
Fernandez, who lives in Brasilia, described a night of fear and sadness as Bolsonaro supporters laid siege to the government buildings. The group was mobilized by nationalistic and proto-fascist ideologies, singing the national anthem, and flying the country’s colors as they rampaged.
“They are defending what they believe to be the homeland,” Fernandez says. “What they were actually doing is destroying heritage.”
The event brought back the eerie scenes of Trump supporters invading the United States Congress on January 6, 2021. And like the January 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol, Bolsonaro supporters were driven by the former president’s own false claims—widely propagated among the far right–that the October 30 election was stolen from their candidate.
President Lula referred to the participants as “terrorists,” and the attack received widespread condemnation from within Brazil and the international community.
“Most political parties, including rightwing political parties, condemned these barbaric acts,” Ana Tereza Duarte, a Brazilian political analyst, tells The Progressive. “And I think that the majority of Brazilians did not support this type of act either.”
On January 9, thousands of Brazilians mobilized to show their widespread rejection of the attack on the government buildings by Bolsonaro’s supporters. Tens of thousands marched across the country under the banner “no amnesty,” demanding that those who participated in the invasion be prosecuted for their attack on democracy.
“Lula cannot continue with his discourse that he is going to dialogue with everyone, because with this radical wing of Bolsonaro supporters there is no space for dialogue.”
President Lula joined the heads of Brazil’s Supreme Court, and both chambers of Congress to condemn the actions on January 8. In a statement the leaders called for calm “in defense of peace and democracy,” promised to prosecute the “terrorists” who attacked the government buildings, and to identify the financiers of the attack.
An Instagram account has been launched to help identify those who participated. As of January 10, more than one thousand pro-Bolsonaro supporters have been arrested for participating in the invasion.
As Bolsonaro supporters invaded government buildings, the former president was busy signing autographs and taking photos with supporters in Southern Florida, where he had fled weeks before. On Monday he was admitted to a local Florida hospital, complaining of “abdominal pain”—an issue reportedly connected to the 2018 knife attack during his first run for president.
Bolsonaro’s presence in Florida has led to some Democrats in the United States calling for his extradition to Brazil. Brazilian officials too have sent letters to the United States requesting his extradition for his part in the invasion. Federal prosecutors in Brazil have requested the freezing of Bolsonaro’s accounts due to his part in the violence.
On January 10, Bolosonaro told Brazilian media he planned to soon return to Brazil.
As Duarte points out, the invasion of the capital by pro-Bolsonaro groups could strengthen Lula’s leadership. But he will now need to reconsider negotiating with the country's far right and supporters of Bolsonaro, who won a majority of seats in both chambers of the congress in the October 2 elections.
“Lula cannot continue with his discourse that he is going to dialogue with everyone, because with this radical wing of Bolsonaro supporters there is no space for dialogue,” she says. “Lula has to take a strong stance, an effective stance. If he doesn't, surely we will see more similar acts.”
The January 8 attack was not a spur-of-the-moment event, but rather came after months of buildup among Bolsonaro supporters, and followed years of the ex-president questioning Brazil’s election integrity.
“These people have been supported by Bolsonaro,” Fernandez says. “He had welcomed them here in Brasilia.”
There were fears that an attack like this could happen following Lula’s October 30 victory over the far-right ex-president in a close run-off election. Following Bolsonaro’s defeat, his supporters blocked roads and set vehicles on fire. In another incident, Lula’s inauguration on January 1 was marked by bomb threats. Added to this, Bolsonaro’s authoritarian tendencies were another clear sign that he would likely not respect the results of any election if he lost.
“What happened on [January 8] cannot be viewed as a surprise,” Duarte says. “After twenty-one years of military dictatorship, when [we] returned to democracy, all the torturers, dictators, were granted amnesty. Jair Bolsonaro always defended the dictatorship.”
But the myth that the 2022 Brazilian election was stolen from Bolsonaro also received significant support and spread from those close to ex-U.S. President Donald Trump. This includes ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who spent the past two months denying the results of the Brazilian election. According to the BBC, Bannon repeatedly wrote on the social media site Gettr, "Lula stole the Election… Brazilians know this."
Bannon maintained this “big lie” even after the January 8 invasion, as Media Matters points out. On his podcast on January 9, Bannon defended the riot, saying “There were millions and millions—tens of millions of people in the street, working class people, and particularly . . . Evangelical Christians that are not prepared to sit there and let an atheistic, Marxist, communist criminal like Lula steal the election and steal their country.”
Bannon is not alone. Fox News host Tucker Carlson also defended the attackers on a January 9 television program, echoing the lie that Lula’s victory over Bolsonaro was the result of “ what was very clearly a rigged election.”
As the global far-right has come to assist Bolsonaro in crafting the narrative of a stolen election, Bolsonaro himself faces possible prison time for various accusations, including mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic and spreading fraud conspiracies ahead of the country’s election. He will also likely face an investigation into his part in the violence that culminated on January 8.
“He is very afraid that he will go to jail because now he no longer has the privileged profile that he did in Brazil,” Fernandez says. “When he returns he will have to confront a Parliamentary Commission that will investigate his anti-democratic actions.”