In what seemed like a recurrence of the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol, thousands of far-right supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace on Sunday (8 January).
The riots come weeks after Bolsonaro lost the October presidential election last year to mark the return of leftist former president Luiz In?cio Lula da Silva.
Lula da Silva blamed his predecessor Bolsonaro for encouraging his supporters by stoking claims of election fraud.
Bolsonaro, who flew to Florida days before his term ended, rebutted the accusation in a tweet, saying that peaceful demonstrations are part of democracy but the invasion of government buildings “crossed the line.”
The similarities between the US Capitol riots and the ransacking of top government buildings in Brazil are raising eyebrows about the role of Trump’s supporters.
As per reports, former US president Donald Trump’s allies have stoked the narratives of a “stolen election” in Brazil to cast doubts on the results of the October presidential election.
How are there discernible parallels between the attack in Brazil and the 6 January US Capitol insurrection? Did Trump’s supporters influence the Brazil riots? Let’s take a closer look.
US Capitol riots and Brazil attack
On 6 January 2021, hundreds of protestors, including far-right groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, opposing the result of the 2020 US presidential election attacked Congress.
The assault took place on the day the US senators were in a huddle in the Capitol to certify the results of the 2020 election, won by Democratic Party leader Joe Biden.
Addressing supporters at a “Save America” rally near the White House, Trump, who was the president at the time, asked them to march “peacefully” to the Capitol.
Further, backing the unproved claims and rumours of massive voter fraud, he told them to “fight like hell”, as per BBC.
Hundreds of protestors then made their way to the Capitol grounds pushing past barriers, yelling, “Whose Capitol? Our Capitol”, as per NPR.
Soon they entered the building, overwhelming the Capitol police.
Donald Trump’s supporters broke into US Capitol in 2021. AFP File Photo
The police were able to finally reestablish order after four hours.
In an eerily similar series of incidents, Bolsonaro’s supporters wearing bright yellow and green shirts of Brazil’s flag invaded the country’s institutions in the capital Brasilia — broke windows, flooded parts of Congress with a sprinkler system, damaged artworks and stole the country’s original 1988 Constitution, reported Reuters.
After over three hours, the military police were able to regain control of Bras?lia’s Three Powers Square, where the three government buildings are located.
“These vandals, who we could call … fanatical fascists, did what has never been done in the history of this country,” President Lula said in a press conference during an official trip to Sao Paulo state, as per Reuters. “All these people who did this will be found and they will be punished.”
Just like the Capitol riots, the ground for the attack in Brazil was laid much before through claims of election fraud.
Bolsonaro, dubbed Trump of the Tropics, used similar tactics as the ex-US president after the election loss such as challenging poll results, refusing to concede defeat and skipping his successor’s inauguration, noted Independent.
The right-wing populist Bolsonaro has for years been alleging rigging in Brazil’s election system, the claims which have been vehemently denied by elections officials, election security experts and fact-checkers, as per Rolling Stone.
Earlier, he had claimed there were failed attempts to steal his 2018 general election victory.
Last year too, even before elections began in Brazil, social media was flooded by claims of electoral fraud, NPR reported.
Challenging the 2022 Brazil election results, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party had urged the country’s Superior Electoral Court to invalidate ballots recorded by around 2,50,000 machines manufactured before 2020, claiming they were compromised during the second round of voting.
Thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters have been camping outside military bases in over 20 cities, some calling for a military coup.
Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace on Sunday. AP
Demonstrators used handmade signs of hashtags “#BrazilianSpring” and “#BrazilWasStolen” in English to promote election fraud claims.
Trump’s support for Bolsonaro
Trump publicly endorsed Bolsonaro during the Brazil presidential election last year.
In October last year, Trump extolled Bolsonaro as a “great” leader and urged Brazilians to vote for him.
Terming the runoff election a “big day for Brazil”, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, “VOTE for President JAIR BOLSONARO — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!!!”
He also slammed Lula da Silva, calling him “a Radical Left Lunatic who will quickly destroy your Country”, as per AFP.
Role of Trump’s supporters under scrutiny
According to BBC, the link between Bolsonaro and the Trump movement came to the limelight in November last year.
The Washington Post reported then that Eduardo Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro’s son, visited Florida for a meeting with Trump. He also spoke to the former US president’s allies Steve Bannon and Jason Miller, who have reportedly been advising Bolsonaro since his election routing.
Bannon has been fanning baseless speculations about election fraud in Brazil and promoting promoted hashtag #BrazilianSpring.
“What’s happening in Brazil is a world event,” Bannon had told The Washington Post in November. “The people are saying they’ve been grossly disenfranchised. [The movement] has moved beyond the Bolsonaro’s in the way that in the US it has moved beyond Trump.”
After Sunday’s riot, Bannon, former Trump strategist, wrote on the social media site Gettr, “Lula stole the Election… Brazilians know this,”. He also called the protestors who stormed the buildings “Freedom Fighters”, reported BBC.
Notably, Bannon had also played a major role in stoking election fraud allegations in the US in 2020.
As per BBC, Ali Alexander, one of the leaders of the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” movement, also encouraged mobs in Bazil, saying “Do whatever is necessary!”
With inputs from agencies
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