Brazilian police interrogate detainees for riots
2023.01.10 14:05
Brazilian police interrogate detainees for riots
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – After anti-government mobs seized public buildings over the weekend, Brazilian police were questioning approximately 1,000 protesters held in an overcrowded gymnasium in the capital on Tuesday as the country’s new government attempted to resolve the crisis.
As troops dismantled a camp in Brasilia from which demonstrators set off on Sunday to storm Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace, the majority of the far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters were detained on Monday.
In order to overturn the October election in which Bolsonaro made baseless claims of a rigged election and leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated Bolsonaro, protesters at the camp outside of army headquarters had called for a military coup.
In a speech on Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes pledged to combat the “terrorists” calling for a coup. He is in charge of investigating the “anti-democratic” protests.
Moraes said, “Democracy will prevail and Brazilian institutions will not bend,” when a new head of the federal police was sworn in.
However, the difficulty of conducting such a vast criminal investigation into a loosely organized protest movement during the first weeks of a new government was already beginning to become apparent.
Around 1,000 protest camp detainees were held in a police gymnasium for questioning. While there, they slept on the ground, some of them covered in Brazilian flags, and they told a Reuters journalist that they were being held indefinitely and were not getting enough food. According to social media video, they sang and took selfies with their phones.
Outside the gym, opposition Senator Marcos do Val told journalists that many of those detained “are paying for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He had previously criticized the riots in Brasilia as a mistake made by the political right.
For their part in Sunday’s rampage, which vandalized some of the capital’s most iconic buildings in the worst attack on Brazilian democracy in decades, approximately 200 additional demonstrators were in a penal facility awaiting charges.
As authorities attempt to identify the rioters and their financial sources, government lawyers requested that Moraes instruct cell phone carriers and social media platforms to store information that could place users in the Sunday rioting areas.
Additionally, investigations may extend far beyond Brasilia. Social media was where pro-Bolsonaro militants discussed their plans to disrupt oil refineries and highways to cause economic chaos in tandem with their assault on the capital.
According to two sources familiar with the investigation, the Brazilian energy company Eletrobras (ELET6.SA) is looking into whether the collapse of two transmission towers was connected to the violence that occurred in Brasilia on Sunday.
Eletrobras did not respond to requests for comment right away. Monday, its subsidiary Eletronorte issued a statement describing “signs of sabotage” in a fallen tower connecting rural communities in northern Brazil to the central grid.
The Bovespa benchmark stock index (.BVSP) rose 0.7% on Tuesday in response to the uprising in Latin America’s largest economy, and Brazil’s real currency gained nearly 1% against the US dollar.
However, the violence may delay economic policy announcements that were scheduled for this week by an administration eager to demonstrate results. Lula’s government has only been in office for a short time.
Rui Costa, Lula’s chief of staff, stated that the government would resume work and timely policy decisions would be made.
In an act of national unity to condemn the riots, Lula, who took office on January 1, met with the head of the Supreme Court, congressional leaders, and state governors on Monday night. They went to the ransacked Supreme Court building, which was the location where the pro-Bolsonaro rioters had caused the most damage.
Lula questioned why the army had not deterred calls for a military coup and accused the rioters of attempting to overthrow democracy.
Outside the barracks, people were loudly calling for a coup, but nothing happened. The 77-year-old president stated, “No general lifted a finger to tell them they could not do that.” He said that some security personnel had helped the rioters.
On Lula’s criticism, the Brazilian army did not respond to a request for comment.
Bolsonaro was admitted to a hospital in the state of the United States after flying to Florida 48 hours before the end of his term. He told CNN Brasil that due to his medical issues, he may shorten his stay there and return to Brazil before the end of the month.
On Tuesday, his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, denied that the riots were caused by the former president.
During a Senate session, he stated, “Since the election result he’s been silent, licking his wounds, virtually incommunicado.”
According to a report on the website of CNN Brasil, public prosecutors requested on Tuesday that a federal audit court freeze the assets of the former president in light of the vandalism that occurred on Sunday. This request was outside the traditional purview of that court.
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