Today, Brazilian President Lula da Silva presided over a number of emergency meetings, with the presidents of the Supreme Court, the upper and lower houses of Congress, and all the governors, to discuss the attacks in Brasilia yesterday and steps to be taken in response. The meetings were held at the Planalto presidential palace. Although the building came under attack yesterday, Lula’s office was spared, because it had been locked at the time.
The meeting included Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, governors, deputy governors, the Attorney General, Minister of Institutional Relations, and many others. Earlier in the day, Lula met separately with the president of the Supreme Court and the presidents of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, and they all issued a statement denouncing the terrorist acts and vandalism of the previous day and announced a series of legal measures to be taken. All governors expressed their solidarity with Lula and committed to doing whatever is necessary to defend Brazil’s democracy. Several will send additional police forces to help defend the capital.
This morning in Brasilia, Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered a joint operation of military police and the Army in the Federal District to clear out and shut down the Bolsonarista encampments in front of Army Headquarters within 24 hours. Globo TV reports that 1,200 people have been arrested. De Moraes’s order applies to encampments which were set up in front of Army bases right in all other states after the Oct. 30 runoff election, which have openly called for the military to stage a coup against Lula and return Bolsonaro to power. Justice Minister Flavio Dino described them as “incubators of terrorism.” Acts of terrorism were planned at these camps and nothing was done to shut them down.
Questions are being raised in the media as to whether the Army, or factions of the Army, were complicit in the Jan. 9 events.
Dino announced that his teams are tracking those who paid for yesterday’s violent operation. Everyone who participated in or financed yesterday’s “serious crimes” are being identified and being brought to justice as early as today, he said. Police have also identified the license plates of at least 100 buses that brought the Bolsonaro people to Brasilia on the evening of Jan. 7. According to the Institutional Relations Minister, uprisings similar to yesterday’s were planned to take place at other locations in the country.
De Moraes also ordered the governor of Brasília, Ibaneis Rocha, a former Bolsonaro ally, to be removed from office for 90 days, due to his security failings.
