Brazil Congress: What role did the police play in preventing Brazil protest?

Just one week after the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as president of Brazil, thousands of supporters of the previous incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed the country’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace.

The president said security forces in the capital, Brasília didn’t do enough to stop them. We’ve looked into the key moments and how the police responded.

Since the narrow election win in October by the left-wing president, better known as Lula, supporters of his right-wing rival had been setting up camps in front of military barracks in many cities around the country.

His most ardent supporters have been calling for the army to intervene and overturn the election result.

Then over the weekend, thousands of people gathered outside the army barracks in Brasília, many of them brought in by bus.

President Lula called on local security forces to remove these protesters, but police had opted to not use force.

We have asked the police authorities in Brasília whether the protesters had been granted official permission to march along this route ahead of time. We haven’t yet received a response.

The protesters arrived at barriers blocking access to the complex of government buildings known as “Praça dos Três Poderes” (Three Powers Square).

One of the policemen can be seen pulling out what appears to be tear gas, spraying it at the protesters, who quickly force their way through.

We have asked the police why they hadn’t organised stronger barriers and mobilised more officers to control the situation once the protesters approached the government square.

Once the barriers had been breached, crowds flooded onto ramps which led to the Congress building and the presidential palace.

Police have been criticised for being too hands-off with the protesters as they streamed in.

Another video shows a policeman being pulled from his horse by protesters as they approach the Congress building and thrown to the ground.

The National Congress was breached just before 15:00 local time.

Videos show protesters using security barricades to smash through several large windows before entering Congress, spreading through the building and onto the roof.

A group also entered the Presidential Palace.

Images show that once inside the building, protesters destroyed furniture, equipment and works of art.

Social media posts from the afternoon of 8 January clearly show scores of protestors both outside in the plaza and milling around inside buildings, in some cases with no police or security forces visible.

Videos circulating on social media showed protesters trashing offices, smashing windows and doors, flipping furniture, and tossing computers and printers to the ground.

It took more than three hours and a federal decree of “intervention” – an order putting the federal government directly in charge of the security forces in Brasília – to get things under control.