Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to Brasilia on Sunday night to find extensive damage to the Presidential Palace, looted by supporters of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, who strongly condemned the invasion, in many ways reminiscent of the storming of the Capitol in Washington two years ago. , comments AFP.

Lula da Silva, who spent half a day in Aráquari, in the flood-ravaged state of São Paulo (in the southeast), went to the Presidential Palace, then to the Supreme Court, seized and looted by thugs, as was Congress.

Images broadcast on TV Globo show him in a late-night debate with Supreme Court judges in front of a building with windows smashed by those who still refuse to accept his return to power.

Jair Bolsonaro is in the United States, where he left two days before the inauguration of Lula da Silva, refusing to give the presidential scarf to the one who defeated him by a narrow margin and whom he never congratulated.

“Peaceful demonstrations, according to the law, are part of democracy. However, destruction and invasion of public buildings (…) are against the rule,” the former far-right president wrote on Twitter.

In another message, he “rejected the accusations” of his successor without evidence. Lula da Silva said his far-right predecessor’s “speech” had “incited” “fascist vandals” who stormed the presidential palace, the Supreme Court and Congress in Brasilia.

Having only been in office for a week and already facing a major crisis, the leftist president lamented the events “unprecedented in Brazilian history”.

The head of state placed local law enforcement agencies under the command of federal forces to restore security in Brasília, where the police had been completely overwhelmed by Bolsonaria’s attack.

Justice and Public Security Minister Flavio Dino said at a press conference on Sunday evening that authorities had been fully evacuated and more than 200 people had been arrested.

“They will not be able to destroy democracy,” he said, considering the attack to be “coup terrorism.”

The governor of the federal district of Brasilia, Ibáñez Rocha, an ally of Jair Bolsonaro, apologized to President Lula da Silva in a video message. He called those responsible for the destruction of public buildings “real vandals” and “real terrorists.”

“We supervised all these movements together with Minister Flavio Dino (…) We never thought that these demonstrations would reach this scale,” he said.

Other allies of the former president also distanced themselves from the violence, including Valdemar Costa Neto, president of PL, Bolsonaro’s party, who condemned “a sad day for the Brazilian nation.”

These attacks caused an avalanche of indignant reactions in the world. French President Emmanuel Macron told Lula da Silva that she could “count on France’s unwavering support”.

His American colleague Joe Biden assessed the violence of the demonstrators as “scandalous”. “The use of violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken wrote on Twitter.

The Brazilian branch of Amnesty International, for its part, called for a “quick and impartial investigation” of these events, which resemble the storming of the Capitol in Washington in January 2021 by supporters of former President Donald Trump after his defeat in front of Joe Biden.

The center of power in Brasilia was in chaos. However, the district was isolated by the authorities, but the residents of Podgorica managed to break through the security borders.

The police tried in vain to repel them with tear gas. The policeman, who was on a horse, was knocked down by force and then beaten by attackers armed with sticks.

The local press union reported attacks on five journalists. Among them, a beaten AFP photojournalist had all his equipment stolen.

Significant damage was done to three huge buildings that are treasures of modern architecture and full of works of art.

Priceless paintings were damaged, including “Duas Mulatas,” signed by modernist artist Di Cavalcanti, displayed in the presidential palace and drilled in several places, according to photos circulating on social media.

“We have to restore order after these rigged elections,” Sara Lima, a 27-year-old engineer who supports Bolsonaro, from Goiáñezia, 300 kilometers from Brasilia, told AFP.

Bolsonaro already demonstrated in front of the military barracks after the defeat of the ex-president on October 30.

They asked for the intervention of the army to prevent Lula da Silva from returning to power for a third term after the term from 2003 to 2010, reminds AFP.