Brazil has announced that it intends to heap punishment onto the supporters of former President Jai BOlsonaro in the wake of their storming the federal buildings of the nation this past Sunday.
A thousands-strong group of supporters of the right-leaning chief executive, who ended up being succeeded by left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this past week in the wake of brutal national elections, stormed facilities that normally host the legislative and executive branches of the South American country. Officials have promised to go after every rioter and have already taken strides to pull some into custody.
“The coup plotters who promoted the destruction of public property in Brasilia are being identified and will be punished,” promised Lula this past Sunday via social media. “Tomorrow we resume work at the Planalto Palace. Democracy always. Goodnight.”
Having openly labeled himself a devout socialist, Lula managed to beat out Bolsonaro, who sports the title “Trump of the Tropics” due to his populist conservative tendencies, by a slim margin of 50.9% to 49.1% throughout national elections which were hosted back in October. Recently, one justice for the Brazilian Supreme Court chose to void corruption convictions slammed against Lula from two years prior, restoring his eligibility for office. Documents released in the wake of Lula’s trial suggested that the judge from the case, Sergio Moro, improperly collaborated with members of the prosecution.
The supporters for Dolsonaro, worried that Lula would devolve down to using soft-on-crime policies and shift the nation to the extreme left, have chosen to camp in front of military facilities over the past few months, begging the authorities to take control of the government. Lula also runs as a populist and is a well-known icon across Latin America, throughout which his ideology, Lulism, constitutes a popular strand of socialist thought.
However, a military response was sent out this past Sunday to deal with the protests.
“I come to inform you that more than 400 people have already been arrested and will pay for the crimes committed,” explained Brazilian Federal District Governor Ibaneis Rocha via social media. “We continue working to identify all the others who participated in these terrorist acts this afternoon in the Federal District. We continue to work to restore order.”
Bolsonaro, who currently lives in Florida due to the ongoing investigations happening in his home country, has stated that the results from the election were fraudulent. This past Sunday, However, he condemned illegal protests. “Peaceful demonstrations, in the form of the law, are part of democracy,” he commented. “However, depredations and invasions of public buildings as occurred today, as well as those practiced by the left in 2013 and 2017, escape the rule.”
