How Storming of Brazil Congress Compares With January 6

The scenes coming out of Brazil from Sunday’s riot on political institutions bore more than a passing resemblance to those of the January 6 riots in the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

Supporters of former President stormed the South American nation’s Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace, saying the recent election which had seen Jair Bolsonaro ousted was subject to fraud.

“Two years since Jan. 6, Trump’s legacy continues to poison our hemisphere,” U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, who chairs the Senate’s foreign relations committee, wrote in a tweet.

But while there are some obvious similarities to the two events, they diverge in several key ways. Where rioters in the U.S. capitol intended to prevent the certification of the 2020 election results before Joe Biden’s inauguration, the uprising in Brazil occurred a full week after the inauguration on January 1 of left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

On Sunday, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters donning green and yellow—the colors of Brazil’s flag—descended on the federal public buildings on the Esplanada dos Ministerios in the capital Brasília, smashing windows, setting off sprinklers and hurling office equipment on the floor.

Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro destroy a window of the the plenary of the Supreme Court in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. Protesters broke through police barricades and stormed into Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court Sunday, in a dramatic protest against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inauguration. TON MOLINA/AFP via Getty Images

The protesters also upended the table at which Brazil’s Supreme Court justices convene and vandalized a statue outside the court. At least 300 people had been arrested on Sunday evening, according to Brazilian police.

There have been no immediate reports of deaths as a result of the riot. In 2021, five people died as a direct result of the riot and 140 officers were injured.

Similarly to the events at the Capitol, the demonstration was also fueled by accusations of election rigging in Brazil’s October 2022 presidential election, which saw Lula, who has already served twice as the nation’s leader, elected in a tight run-off contest.

Bolsonaro, like Trump before him, has been stoking belief among his hardcore supporters that Brazil’s electronic voting system, in place since 1996, was prone to fraud.

Protestors who stormed the country’s Congress held a banner on the roof of the building stating: “We Want The Source Code.” This is an apparent reference to the software used on voting machines. There has been no evidence to suggest the machines have been subject to fraud.

Bolsonaro followed in the former U.S. president’s footsteps by not conceding defeat and was absent from Lula’s inauguration ceremony.

But despite his claims of election fraud, Bolsonaro largely remained quiet after the defeat, and traveled to Florida ahead of the ceremony, instead of remaining in the eye of the storm as Trump had while still in the White House.

Supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro hold a demonstration at the Esplanada dos Ministerios in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. Demonstrators entered federal buildings, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. EVARISTO SA/AFP via Getty Images

Bolsonaro, like Trump, took several hours to condemn the riot, stating that “depredations and invasions of public buildings […] escape the rule” of peaceful demonstrations in a tweet. His remarks came after Lula described the protesters as “fanatical fascists” and blamed a “genocidist” Bolsonaro for “encouraging this via social media from Miami”—accusations the former president repudiated.

“Bolsonarism mimics the same strategies as Trumpism. Our Jan. 8—an unprecedented manifestation in Brazilian politics—is clearly copied from Jan. 6 in the Capitol,” Paulo Calmon, a political science professor at the University of Brasilia, told the Associated Press.

Describing Bolsonaro as the “Trump of Latin America,” he added that the “sad episodes represent yet another attempt to destabilize democracy and demonstrate that the authoritarian, populist radicalism of Brazil’s extreme right remains active under.”

Security forces arrest supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after retaking control of Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. TON MOLINA/AFP via Getty Images

While on January 6, Capitol Police were alone for several hours while being overwhelmed by rioters, Brazil’s government had apparently anticipated the uprising. Flávio Dino, Brazil’s justice minister, had authorized the use of the National Public Security Force, akin to the National Guard, in the capital from Saturday to Monday, “in the face of threats against democracy.”

Still, questions will be asked of how beefed-up security forces around the Brazilian capital were still overwhelmed. Lula said there was “incompetence or bad faith” among police officers, pledging some would be punished.

Unlike on January 6, many of the government buildings in Brasília were believed to be empty when protesters entered. Many were arrested on the spot. Dino said that an operation was already in progress to identify others who had taken part.