More than 1,500 people involved in terrorist attacks in Brasília, culminating in the looting of the headquarters of Brazil’s executive, legislative and judiciary on Sunday, have been detained for the past few hours, Flávio Dino, Minister of Justice and Public Prosecutions, said. . Security of the government of President Lula da Silva. Prisoners can answer for a coup and 14 more crimes.
According to Dino at a press conference, 209 of those arrests were in the act and the remaining approximately 1,300 were for police questioning. Almost all of them belong to supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who are stationed in the camp set up two months ago in front of the army headquarters in Brasília – this camp and dozens of others set up across Brazil have already been dismantled.
“Those who were at the scene of the destruction have been arrested red-handed and measures will be taken by the judicial police. In the end, they will be given the benefit of provisional release,” the minister said.
According to Dino, three investigations will be opened to investigate not only who are the people who took part in the deeds, but also who are the financiers, who are still in the identification process. The minister said he already has a list of all the people who financed the vehicles that went to Brasília.
Those involved may be charged with, among others, coup d’état, theft, bodily harm, damage to the public interest, robbery, possession of a stabbing weapon, disobedience, resisting arrest, active corruption.
At the same time, the Federal District Prosecutor’s Office requested information from the police forces of the same state about their actions in the terrorist attacks on the headquarters of the three government departments. Data requested includes the number of police officers deployed to the operation and the strategies followed.
police investigated
According to the prosecution, the agency will launch an investigation to determine responsibilities if there is any indication of irregularities in the conduct of any of the police forces, civilian or military. “Of course there will be a review, especially in the Military Police, and it is already underway and should be based on an appointment with the acting governor so that there is a normalization of security policy in the DF,” said Dino.
The minister also blamed Bolsonaro for what happened – “the words of a president have power, we warn that these words should not be taken as a joke, on Sunday they were given arms, legs, stones, sticks and weapons”. The former president had responded to his supporters’ attacks on social media, saying that “looting and invasions of public buildings such as those that have taken place today, as well as those by the left in 2013 and 2017, escape the rule (…) , further I reject, without evidence, the allegations attributed to me by the current head of the Executive Branch of Brazil”.
However, the Advocacy General of the Union, the institution responsible for managing Brazil’s public assets, called for the arrest of Anderson Torres, the Minister of Public Security of the Federal District. Torres, sworn in a week ago, was Bolsonaro’s justice minister until the end of 2022 and, like the former Brazilian president, was on holiday in Florida on Sunday. “I lived the most bitter day of my life,” the secretary responded, “spending the vacation I dreamed of for so long” and watching “an attack that was one of the saddest moments of recent years.”
Ibaneis Rocha, the governor of the Federal District who dismissed Torres shortly after the attack, was in turn removed from office for 90 days by decision of Federal Supreme Court (STF) judge Alexandre de Moraes “through knowledge”. “I respect the decision of the STF, I wait with serenity, faith in justice and democratic institutions,” said Ibaneis, an ally of Bolsonaro for the past four years.
A tapestry that belonged to Princess Isabel, a replica of the 1988 constitution and a 17th-century clock that went to Brazil with the Portuguese royal family are among dozens of historical objects that were damaged.
Still on Sunday, Lula decreed “federal intervention in the security of the Federal District”, that is, he determined that it was the government of Brazil, not the local government, to deal with acts of terrorism. Ibaneis even issued a public apology to Lula and the presidents of the two houses of the National Congress and the Federal Supreme Court in the early hours of Sunday, “not accepted” by the head of state.
Lula and the other authorities, Veneziano Vital do Rêgo, President of the Acting Senate, Arthur Lira, President of the Chamber of Deputies, and Rosa Weber, President of the STF, met early Monday morning to issue a joint note “of unity” to sign. .
“The powers of the Republic, defenders of democracy and the Constitutional Charter of 1988, denounce the acts of terrorism, vandalism, criminals and coup plotters that took place this Monday afternoon in Brasília,” the note said. “We are united so that institutional measures are taken, under the conditions of Brazilian law.”
Destroyed works of art
In addition to windows, chairs, documents, computers, printers and televisions in the rooms of the STF judges, parliamentarians or the office of the first lady, Janja da Silva, the criminals, who set fire to and overrun the congress, also historical objects valued, in some cases in the millions of reais. A damaged work by Brazilian modernist painter Di Cavalcanti is worth about eight million reais [cerca de 1,5 milhões de euros] and can fetch up to five times more at auctions. A stained glass window by the artist Marianne Peretti, windows of the Congress and the Planalto that displayed historical objects, and the photo gallery of the Presidents of the Republic were also destroyed.
Gifts from foreign authorities were looted and works of art were stolen, such as the plinth of Victor Brecheret’s Ballerina statue. The Sculptural Wall, by Athos Bulcão, was perforated at the base, the sculpture Maria, Maria, by Sônia Ebling, marked with a stick, the sculpture O Flautista, by Bruno Giorgi, smashed through the hall, as well as the work Bandeira do Brazil, by George Edward.
A carpet that belonged to Princess Isabel, a replica of the 1988 constitution and a 17th-century clock that went to Brazil with the Portuguese royal family were damaged, while the desk of historic president Juscelino Kubitscheck served as a barricade for terrorists.
Sunday’s actions in Brasília earned strong international condemnation
Source: DN
