Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday he was convinced that the protesters who invaded the presidential palace in Brasilia on Sunday had received help from the inside and announced a “deep” reassessment of personnel.
“I am convinced that the door of the Planalto palace has been opened for people to enter, because no door has been broken,” said the leftist leader during his first breakfast with journalists since his inauguration on January 1. .
“It means that someone facilitated their entry here,” he insisted.
Sunday of chaos in Brasilia
“How could I have someone at my office door who could shoot me?” Lula asked.
Several thousand supporters of the far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who reject his electoral defeat against Lula at the end of October, sowed chaos in the capital this Sunday, invading the Presidential Palace, but also the Supreme Court and Congress.
They destroyed everything in their path, including artwork, in an action in many ways reminiscent of the January 6, 2021 invasion of the Capitol in Washington by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
1159 imprisonments
More than 2,000 people were arrested after the riots, and 1,159 of them were jailed, according to the latest report from the authorities.
Authorities are investigating who organized the assault and how the protesters were financed. “We are going to investigate calmly to understand what really happened,” said the 77-year-old president, who is serving his third term as head of Brazil, while announcing a “deep” reassessment of the palace staff.
“The truth is that the palace was full of bolsonarios, military, and we want to see if we can remedy (the situation) by placing career officials, preferably civilians or those who were there before or who were suspended,” he declared.
Source: BFM TV
