Live updates: Brazil’s Lula blames security forces for failing to halt riot
Brazil #Brazil
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused the country’s police and intelligence officials of failing to halt Sunday’s insurrection by supporters of former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro in the capital, saying they “neglected their duty.” Authorities in Brazil carried out at least 1,500 arrests after rioters descended on Brasília, breaching and vandalizing the country’s National Congress, Supreme Federal Court and presidential office.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro — who did not concede his October election loss and whose radical supporters cling to unsubstantiated fraud claims — is in Florida. Some Democratic lawmakers called for the former Brazilian leader’s visa to be revoked.
5:48 AM: Brazil riot put spotlight on close ties between Bolsonaro and Trump
In August 2021, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s son traveled to Sioux Falls, S.D., to meet with some of the most prominent purveyors of former president Donald Trump’s false claims of mass election fraud.
Eduardo Bolsonaro had a dire warning for the group, which included Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former top adviser: Brazil’s electronic voting system was “ridiculous” and vulnerable to mass fraud, he said according to a recording of the event.
The gathering was part of the prologue to events that unfolded in Brazil on Sunday, when Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed government buildings — smashing windows and assaulting police — in a striking echo of the pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Like Trump, Bolsonaro had spent months predicting mass fraud and then refused to concede defeat after losing his October election.
Read the full story
By: Michael Kranish and Isaac Stanley-Becker
5:48 AM: U.S. would ‘treat seriously’ requests to revoke Bolsonaro’s visa
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro arrived in Florida on Dec. 30, 2022 — two days before the inauguration of his opponent, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and nine days before a large group of his supporters stormed Brazil’s capital and tried to overturn the country’s democratic elections.
But his tenure in the Sunshine State, where some experts say he might be hoping to stay clear of legal trouble back home, could be limited. If he entered the United States on a diplomatic visa, he would have to depart by the end of the month or apply for a different status, the State Department said Monday, amid calls by some lawmakers to extradite the far-right leader.
The United States requires all visitors from Brazil to acquire a visa. But Bolsonaro’s legal status remains murky. Both the White House and the State Department have refused to comment on his visa status, citing the need to protect individual confidentiality.
Read the full story.
By: Miriam Berger, Emmanuel Felton and Karen DeYoung
5:48 AM: Photos: Iconic buildings and historic art damaged by rioters
When supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stormed and ransacked the National Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court on Sunday, they didn’t just threaten the country’s young democracy: They also damaged iconic architecture and vandalized valuable artworks.
In the Planalto Palace, which houses the president’s office, rioters destroyed “an important part of the artistic and architectural collection gathered there and which represents an important chapter in national history,” the palace said in a statement Monday.
Read the full story
By: Paulina Villegas and Rafael Vilela