Almost exactly two years after the far-right protestors attacked the Capitol building in the US, Brazil yesterday experienced its own attempted insurrection, when supporters of recently ousted president Jair Bolsonaro stormed its congressional building, the presidential palace, and the supreme court. Here is everything you need to know about the far-right’s latest failed attempt to seize power, and why it happened. 

WHAT WENT DOWN?

Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters descended on Brasília yesterday to protest left-wing candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory last November, which they falsely claim was a stolen election. Since Bolsonaro was defeated, there has been a dedicated misinformation campaign, similar to Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ movement following his own defeat, spreading the idea that the results were fraudulent. There is no evidence to back this up.

Upon arriving in Brasília, the protesters – many of whom traveled in from different states – began to wreak havoc, breaching security barriers set up by the Brazilian army and gaining entry to the country’s most important political offices. President Lulu was not in residence at the time of the breach, nor were either of Brazil’s houses of congress in session. But the protestors did manage to cause a great deal of damage, vandalising the country’s public buildings and destroying invaluable works of art and historical artifacts. Footage shows protesters – draped in the yellow and green of Brazil’s flag – starting fires, attacking police officers (and a horse), and using barricades to smash through windows.

As with January 6 riots, many of the would-be insurrectionists appear totally lost once they actually get into the government buildings, doing little more than wandering around and filming themselves. It’s a worrying situation – and lots of events that led up to genuine fascism would probably have appeared haphazard and clumsy if people had been filming them – but there’s an air of ‘doing it for the gram’ about it (as one protestor declared, “there is no way to stop the people… subscribe to my channel, guys.”) For the most part, these do not seem like serious people. 

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

Fascists are bad losers. So it was perhaps inevitable that Bolsanoro’s supporters weren’t going to take his defeat lying down, particularly when the Trump movement in the US offers such an obvious model for failing to take the L – a lot of the rhetoric used by the Bolsonaristo’s is exactly the same. When looking to the US for inspiration, however, they might have considered that Jan 6, rather than being a shining example of how to stage a right-wing coup, was an embarrassing failure that didn’t achieve anything other than further destroying Trump’s credibility.

Social media is widely accepted as having played a major role in the insurrection, with Bolsonaristas having spent months spreading misinformation and calling for attacks on government buildings, along with gas stations and refineries. This mostly took place on Telegram and other closed platforms, where organisers posted times, dates and routes for the insurrection (which they referred to as a ‘war cry party’), as well as arranging coaches from different states. But TikTok and Twitter also acted as a vector for misinformation. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Elon Musk recently fired everyone at the company’s Brazil office responsible for moderating content and removing posts inciting violence.

Questions have also been raised about the complicity of the Brazilian police. While some of them were viciously attacked, others were seen chatting and taking photographs with the protestors – in one piece of footage, military police appear to be marching alongside the insurrectionists. Journalist David Adler contrasted the largely casual and off-hand way the police handled the insurrection with the brutal suppression of a protest led by Indigenous people last year. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

The reaction from the international community has been near-unanimous, with US President Joe Biden leading the condemnation. The Brazilian state has responded swiftly: 400 people have already been arrested, and Lulu took to national television to denounce the protesters as “fascists”, “vandals” and “Nazis”, pledging to track down and arrest everyone involved. The fact that this happened at all is disturbing, but it seems unlikely that it will lead to anything positive for the pro-Bolsonaro movement, particularly if the example of Jan 6 – the fall-out from which has been a contributing factor in the ongoing downfall of Trump – is anything to go by.

There is currently no evidence that Bolsonaro himself was involved in the insurrection, but the fact that he never properly conceded defeat is no doubt a contributing factor. He is not currently in Brazil, having spent the last months in Orlando, Florida, hanging out in KFC and potentially sleeping in a Minions-themed bed (seriously). He denounced the violence on Twitter last night, denying any involvement, and has previously called his supporters to move on. 

However, an arrest warrant has been issued for Bolsonaro’s former Justice Secretary Anderson Torres, on suspicion of “acts and omissions” which led to the unrest. According to reports, Torres is currently staying in Orlando – even though he has denied meeting with the former president, that does seem like quite the coincidence. 🧐