Brazil’s Congress attacked

Places of power in Brazil were invaded by supporters of former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.

Transcript

00:00Thousands of people who support Brazil's far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro

00:04invaded the country's Congress, Presidential Palace, and Supreme Court on Sunday.

00:08In October, Bolsonaro narrowly lost the presidential election to leftist candidate

00:12Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva. Around 3.30pm local time, a group of protesters broke

00:18through security lines and invaded Congress. By 4pm, demonstrators had invaded the Presidential

00:22Palace and the Supreme Court. Parliamentarians' offices, furniture, and artwork were ransacked

00:27by the protesters, and Congress had to be flooded to stop a fire. There were clashes with police,

00:32and tear gas was thrown from a helicopter. Deputies, senators, and President Lula were

00:36not present when the attacks took place. Quote,

00:39These vandals, who we could call fanatical Nazis, fanatical Stalinists, fanatical fascists,

00:44did what has never been done in the history of this country, Lula said in an address.

00:47All these people who did this will be found, and they will be punished.

00:51Between 7 and 8pm, police seemed to have taken control of the situation. More than

00:55400 people were arrested. Around 10pm, former President Jair Bolsonaro said on twitter that

01:00quote,

01:00Invasions of public buildings like the ones today are against the rule. He also denied

01:05encouraging the protests. This is not the first time Bolsonaro's supporters have demonstrated

01:09against Lula's victory. The day after the election, some of his supporters blocked roads

01:13in protest. They also regularly gather in front of barracks to call for military intervention

01:18to bring Bolsonaro back to power.