Brazil faced another day of political turmoil on Monday as troops moved in to break up far-right encampments and pro-democracy groups prepared to hit the streets, a day after\u00a0insurrectionists attacked all three branches of government\u00a0in the country\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Bras\u00edlia, hundreds of army troops and riot police began clearing hardcore supporters of\u00a0Jair Bolsonaro\u00a0from the camps where Sunday\u2019s chaos originated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bolsonaro extremists have been occupying areas near military facilities since the far-right leader was defeated in a tight-fought election in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bolsonaro lost to Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva but his supporters have refused to accept the result and\u00a0camped out across Brazil alleging the election was stolen, even though there is no evidence to back up their claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A significant number have appealed for the military to overthrow the elected government and thousands of them marched on the capital on Sunday, storming into the presidential palace, the congress building, and the supreme court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They smashed windows, furniture and equipment, destroyed works of art and official documents, and occupied the buildings before law enforcement officials moved in to end the chaos. At least 1,200 people were arrested, according to the Folha de S Paulo newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawlessness was condemned by politicians, world leaders and most Brazilians but the hardcore fanatics \u2013 described by Lula as \u201cvandals and neo-fascists\u201d \u2013 were unbowed on Monday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a corrupt thief,\u201d one Bolsonaro activist, Carla Coutinho, said of Lula as she looked on from her makeshift camp outside the army\u2019s cultural centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mood was tense as the camp was surrounded by riot police carrying shields and truncheons. Some radicals had fled after Sunday\u2019s chaos and soldiers removed what remained, leaving scores of tents and plastic sheeting blowing in the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brazil flags and placards fluttered in the trees and blew along the ground, beside pallets and other debris. Some stragglers hauled backpacks away under the watchful eye of troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, left-leaning organisations in cities such as S\u00e3o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were preparing to march in support of Lula and democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demonstrations were also planned at universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lula met with the defence minister on Monday morning and called a meeting of state governors for 6pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaders of all three branches of government issued a joint statement expressing their united front against the threats to the democratic order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe call on society to remain calm in defence of peace and democracy,\u201d the letter said. \u201cThe country needs normality, respect and social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lula was in S\u00e3o Paulo overseeing flood relief at the time of the insurrection but returned to the capital on Sunday night after ordering federal officials to assume control of public security decisions in Bras\u00edlia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He promised to use the full force of the law to bring those responsible to justice, as well as those who financed the camps and their occupants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The justice ministry set up an anonymous email to receive \u201cinformation about the terrorists who invaded and destroyed\u201d government buildings and independent sources set up image searches to identify those who appeared on camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around the same time, Anderson Torres, the Federal District\u2019s police chief, was relieved of his duties and shortly afterwards, the capital\u2019s governor was also removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes said Governor Ibaneis Rocha had ignored requests from federal authorities to prepare an appropriate security plan ahead of Sunday\u2019s protests. The pro-Bolsonaro governor had also defended what he called \u201cfree political manifestations\u201d, Moraes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAbsolutely nothing justifies the omission and connivance of the Federal District\u2019s public security secretary and the Federal District\u2019s governor with the criminals who announced ahead of time that they were going to practice violent acts,\u201d Moraes said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bolsonaro criticised what he called the \u201cdepredations and invasions\u201d but in keeping with his strategy since losing the election he did not unequivocally ask his supporters to stop their protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former president fled to the United States on the eve of Lula\u2019s inauguration and with US leaders vocally supporting Lula, intrigue mounted over his status there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The O Globo columnist Guga Chacra suggested that Bolsonaro, who arrived in Florida while still president, may have done so on a diplomatic passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, after leaving power on 1 January he could be considered a tourist and so might need to change his visa status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US authorities, though, may not be willing to make life easy for the disgraced leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Joe Biden and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, both condemned Sunday\u2019s attacks and expressed support for democracy, while the Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, \u201cThe US must cease granting refuge to Bolsonaro in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brazil faced another day of political turmoil on Monday as troops moved in to break up far-right encampments and pro-democracy groups prepared to hit the streets, a day after\u00a0insurrectionists attacked all three branches of government\u00a0in the country\u2019s capital. In Bras\u00edlia, hundreds of army troops and riot police began clearing hardcore supporters of\u00a0Jair Bolsonaro\u00a0from the camps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[7603,9970,5722,8311,8217,6975,11394,5178,6044,559,2422,10655,8659,11583,6369,6693,9217,10507,9742,5183,11606,913,12246,911,8123,5787,5321,2264,603,2471,10419,10342,10634,8138,9833,5572,10200,11973,7980,2604,5396,8536,421,11698,3805,11377,10722,12337,823,13235,6788,5655,5618,1825,9810,8761,10740,10304,9178,9262,9039,6348,1151,7620,5647,11359,36,594],"class_list":["post-29087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-activist","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-anonymous","tag-antony-blinken","tag-army","tag-arrest","tag-attacks","tag-biden","tag-blinken","tag-bolsonaro","tag-brazil","tag-break-up","tag-camera","tag-capital","tag-chaos","tag-congress","tag-congresswoman","tag-court","tag-da","tag-debris","tag-democracy","tag-democratic","tag-diplomatic","tag-election","tag-eye","tag-flood","tag-florida","tag-government","tag-jair-bolsonaro","tag-joe-biden","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-lost","tag-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","tag-meeting","tag-military","tag-o-globo","tag-one","tag-overthrow","tag-passport","tag-peace","tag-plastic","tag-police","tag-politicians","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-removed","tag-rio","tag-rio-de-janeiro","tag-riot","tag-sao-paulo","tag-security","tag-soldiers","tag-supreme-court","tag-supreme-court-justice","tag-thief","tag-tourist","tag-trees","tag-troops","tag-united-states","tag-universities","tag-us","tag-us-secretary-of-state","tag-vandals","tag-visa","tag-windows","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50864,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29087\/revisions\/50864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}