Truckers who support Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and who want an intervention in the country after the far-right leader’s defeat in the presidential elections maintain blockades at 227 highway points, according to local media.
The information is contained in a report released at 9 am (12 pm in Lisbon) by the Federal Highway Police and quoted by the local press.
Justice Minister Anderson Torres reported on the social network Twitter that 192 roadblocks have already been removed and that the police are working “uninterruptedly to unblock the roads.”
Since last Sunday (30), Bolsonaro’s supporters began to block the flow on highways throughout the country as a form of protest against the result of the presidential elections won by President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Information about actions by authorities linked to the Bolsonaro government contrasts with images spread by the press and on social networks about the blockades that extended to areas within large cities, such as São Paulo, which had some lanes of the Marginal Tietê interrupted, in which it is possible to see the police monitoring the protesters and in some cases even encouraging them.
In an act in Santa Catarina, in the south of the country, a policeman was filmed encouraging the participants in the blockade acts to resist for 72 hours, alleging that the President would need that time to act.
Bolsonaro supporters also blocked the highway leading to Guarulhos International Airport, where there was a traffic jam. The problem caused the cancellation of several flights and forced passengers to walk with their bags on the route.
On Monday night, the president of the Superior Electoral Court ordered the Highway Police to act immediately to clear roadblocks in various parts of the country in response to a request from the National Transport Confederation and the deputy electoral attorney general, Alexandre de Moraes.
The judge also said that if he does not take action, the director of the Federal Highway Police, Silvinei Vasques, a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro, will face a fine of 100 thousand reais per hour (about 20 thousand euros) from 00: 00 (03 :00 in Lisbon), and may even be arrested and removed from office for disobedience.
Moraes today ordered the military police of the states to clear the blocked roads in the country and identify those responsible for the blockades while his previous decision is analyzed by the full Federal Supreme Court (STF), which already has a majority in favor of his decision.
The supposedly inorganic and leaderless protests have already been condemned by prominent Bolsonaro supporters linked to agribusiness and the transportation industry, such as the Frente Parlamentar do Agronegócio (FPA).
Among the roads blocked was Via Dutra, the road that connects Rio de Janeiro with São Paulo and the one with the highest volume of traffic in Brazil.
The president of the Workers’ Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, blamed the Brazilian head of state and accused Bolsonaro of directing “the chaos in the country.”
The head of state and defeated candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, has not yet called Lula da Silva to congratulate him and has not made any public statement since the announcement of the presidential results on Sunday for more than 24 hours.
Bolsonaro met, on Monday, at the Palácio do Planalto, with several ministers, but so far he has not released any information on when he will speak about the presidential elections.
With 100% of the votes counted, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Sunday’s presidential elections by a narrow margin, receiving 50.9% of the votes, compared to 49.1% for Jair Bolsonaro, who was seeking a new four-year term.
Source: TSF
