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Brazil’s Ex-President Condemns Brasilia Attack

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BRASILIA (Worthy News) – Brazil’s former president and conservative rightwing leader Jair Bolsonaro has condemned supporters who invaded and ransacked the government’s top institutions on Sunday.

“Peaceful demonstrations, within the law, are part of democracy. But depredations and invasions of public buildings like we saw today, like the acts done by the left in 2013 and 2017, are not within the rules,” Bolsonaro stressed on social networking site Twitter.

Critics called Bolsonaro’s condemnation “muted,” which came hours after protesters, who doubt his announced October election loss, broke past security at Brazil’s Congress, the legislature.

Thousands also invaded the presidential palace and the Supreme Court

Some 400 people have been detained in the confrontation so far, according to local police.

The attack was a massive security breach that commentators compared to the January 6, 2021, invasion of the U.S. Capitol by rioters who were followers of then, President Donald J. Trump.

Lula was not in Brasília, the capital, at the time of Sunday’s violence. But he gave an angry speech blaming Bolsonaro for the chaos and promising that “anyone involved will be punished.”

FEDERAL INTERVENTION

He lashed out at those participating in the attacks, calling them “vandals, neo-fascists, and fanatics.”

Lula also ordered a federal intervention in the capital, effectively bringing policing under the central government’s control.

Questions had been asked as to why security forces were initially overwhelmed by the invaders.

World leaders were quick to condemn the violence as an attack on the democracy of the nation, which is still healing after decades of dictatorship.

U.S. President Joe Biden said the situation in Brazil was “outrageous.” Some senior American lawmakers called for Bolsonaro to be extradited from the United States, where he currently is on holiday in Florida with supporters greeting him.

However, Bolsonaro was hospitalized with abdominal pain, said his wife, Michelle, on social media on Monday.

She said he visited a hospital for observation due to abdominal discomfort related to a 2018 stabbing that led to multiple hospitalizations in the past.