Bolsonaro supporters storm congress, presidential building, court

The attack came a week after the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in a runoff election in October.

Images on Globo TV showed protesters roaming the halls and standing near smashed glass cases in the Planalto Palace, the office of the president. Thousands of others wearing the national soccer shirt — now a symbol of the far right — and waving the Brazilian flag milled about the massive square outside in a part of the Brasilia capital that is similar to Washington’s National Mall.

“God, Fatherland, Family and Liberty,” they cried as scores marched to the Praça dos Três Poderes — the Plaza of the Three Powers — according to videos on social media. In another video purportedly from today’s assault, a group of protesters appear to attack a mounted police officer, while a woman yells out, “stop, stop!” and a man adds “guys, let the police officer go.”

“This absurd attempt to impose the will by force will not prevail,” Lula’s justice minister Flavio Dino tweeted shortly after the invasion began around 2:30 p.m. local time. “The Government of the Federal District claims that there will be reinforcements. And the forces at our disposal are at work. I’m at the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice.”

The incident captured the uncanny parallels between Bolsonaro and his political lodestar, Trump, and came after months in which pundits have feared a Jan. 6-style copycat action here.

In a manner similar to Trump, Bolsonaro has fueled discontent among his base since his loss to the newly-inaugurated leftist, stepping down while refusing to officially concede.

“Today’s explosion of mob violence is an insurrection foretold,” said Robert Muggah, co-founder of the Rio think tank Igarapé Institute. “Resentments among Bolsonaro’s militant supporters have been simmering for months.”

“The similarities of Brazilian far-right mobs storming Congress, the Supreme Court and Presidential Palace with the Jan. 6 insurrection of the Capitol are not coincidental,” he added. “Like their MAGA counterparts, Bolsonaro supporters have been fed a steady diet of misinformation and disinformation for years, much of it modeled on the narratives pedaled by far-right influencers in the US.”

Thousands of Bolsonaristas have camped out at military headquarters across Latin America’s largest country, demanding military intervention to reinstate Bolsonaro, who last week flew to Florida instead of attending a ceremony in the capital of Brasilia where outgoing presidents traditionally hand over the sash of power.

Although the exact match that lit the assaults on Sunday remained unclear, Dino had said on Wednesday that he would move to clear the protest camps in front of the military…