Sao Paulo Brazil’s ex-president Jair Bolsonaro is still in the United States. According to media reports, shortly after the riots of his supporters in his home country on Sunday, the former president was treated in a hospital in the city of Orlando, Florida. He is said to have complained of abdominal pain.
After a short stay, he was released from the hospital. Bolsonaro announced this himself on Twitter on Monday evening. It is not the first time that right-wing politicians have come to the clinic, even in politically critical situations.
At an election campaign event in September 2018, a mentally disturbed man stabbed Bolsonaro and inflicted serious abdominal injuries on him. The ex-military then continued the election campaign from the hospital. The following month he was elected President. Bolsonaro has been hospitalized since then, including after taking office in early 2019, and has had to undergo multiple surgeries.
Bolsonaro flew to the United States with his family two days before the end of his term on New Year’s Day. His supporters had camped outside the military headquarters in Brasília since the runoff election for the presidency at the end of October, in which Lula narrowly defeated Bolsonaro. The situation escalated on Sunday with attacks on parliament and buildings in the government district.
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In the state of Florida, according to media reports, he stayed with Bolsonaro in a house belonging to the former Brazilian martial artist José Aldo in a closed residential complex. The United States has not yet received an extradition request against the former head of state.
“We have not yet received an official request from the Brazilian government regarding Bolsonaro,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday during a visit by US President Joe Biden to Mexico City. “If such a request is made, we will take it seriously.”
The US State Department declined to comment on Bolsonaro’s residency status in the US on Monday. Department spokesman Ned Price said in Washington that he could not provide information on an individual’s visa status because it was confidential.
President Lula promises an investigation
Meanwhile, the new Brazilian head of state, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, promised on Monday to identify and apprehend those behind the riots in Brasilia. “We’re going to investigate and find the people who funded it,” Lula said on Brazilian television after meeting more than 20 governors in Brasília.
Brazil’s head of state has exchanged views with US President Joe Biden.
(Photo: AP)
US President Biden pledged his support to the Brazilian President. The White House released a joint statement by the two presidents on Monday after speaking on the phone.
It said Biden had condemned the violence and attack on Brazil’s democratic institutions and pledged “the unwavering support of the United States for Brazilian democracy.” The two also agreed to meet in Washington in early February.
The outbreak of violence in Brazil is a grim reminder of the attack on the US Capitol two years ago almost to the day. On January 6, 2021, supporters of the then US President Donald Trump violently stormed the seat of parliament in Washington.
>> Read also: What the chaos in Brazil means for the country’s economy
Congress met there to formally confirm Democrat Biden’s victory in the presidential election. Trump had previously incited his supporters in a speech with the unsubstantiated claim that he had been deprived of a victory by massive election fraud.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) also promised the new President Lula solidarity. “As democracies we stick together,” emphasized Baerbock in Berlin. Scholz spoke of an “attack on democracy that cannot be tolerated”. The governments of the USA, Canada and Mexico also sharply condemned the events in Brazil.
Even the Brazilian football association CBF condemned the riots, in which many participants wore the canary yellow jersey of the national team. The jersey is “a symbol of the joy of our people, to cheer, cheer and love the country,” emphasized the association on Monday. The CBF is an impartial and democratic institution. “We encourage the kit to be used to unite and not separate the Brazilians.”
1500 people arrested after outbreak of violence
After the incidents in Brasília, around 1,500 people were provisionally arrested. Security forces cleared a camp of Bolsonaro sympathizers in front of the armed forces’ headquarters in the capital on Monday and temporarily detained the activists, the Justice Ministry said.
Around 1,500 people were arrested after the riots in Brasilia.
(Photo: dpa)
The people were taken away in around 40 buses, reported the news portal “G1”. Camps run by Bolsonaro supporters were also broken up in other cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and arrests were also made there.
The supporters of the right-wing ex-president had briefly brought the control centers of the country’s most important state powers under their control in the government district of Brasilia: They penetrated the Congress, the Supreme Court and the government seat Palácio do Planalto, rioted in offices and meeting rooms and left a trail of destruction. The police seemed completely taken by surprise.
>> Also read here: Uprising in Brasilia – The strongest opponents of democracy come from within
It took hours for the security forces to bring the situation back under control. Access to the damaged buildings remained restricted the day after while investigators surveyed the damage and secured evidence.
Lula tries to get the upper hand
The governor of the federal district around the capital was temporarily relieved of his office on Monday. The Supreme Court ordered Ibaneis Rocha to be suspended for an initial 90 days. According to the “G1” portal, the order also served as a warning to governors of other states not to remain inactive towards radical Bolsonaro supporters.
Brasília’s chief of security, Anderson Torres, who served as justice minister under Bolsonaro, had previously been fired. Head of state Lula, who has been in office for about a week, placed public safety in the capital under federal supervision by decree.
When around 4,000 other supporters of the ex-president arrived in buses in the capital on Saturday and Sunday and moved to the government district, they were escorted by police officers. Some of the officers even took selfies with the protesters and filmed cell phone videos, as seen on TV.
Back in December, violent Bolsonaro sympathizers tried to break into the federal police building in Brasília and set fire to cars and buses. Like the rioters on Sunday, they did not want to recognize Lula’s election victory and repeatedly called for military intervention.
More: Storming of government quarters – President Lula distrusts the military