Pro-Bolsonaro Protests: Here's What led to Brazilian Capital’s Chaotic Uprising

The protests sparked accusations that Bolsonaro's actions fanned the unrest and eventually led to the rebellion, news agency the Associated Press reported.

Jair Bolsonaro was hiding out in Florida, home to his ally, former U.S. President Donald Trump, as his supporters wreaked havoc in the capital.

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Angry mobs who support former president Jair Bolsonaro rampaged through Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential offices, smashing windows, furniture and artwork on Sunday in the worst attack on state institutions since Brazil's return to democracy in the 1980s, in an episode that had striking similarities to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Bolsonaro was hiding out in Florida, home to his ally, former U.S. President Donald Trump, as his supporters wreaked havoc in the capital. The incident sparked accusations that Bolsonaro's actions fanned the unrest and eventually led to the rebellion, news agency the Associated Press reported.

Who are the protestors?

The demonstrators are staunch Bolsonaro supporters, some of whom have been camping out in front of a military headquarters in Brasilia ever since Bolsonaro lost the presidential election on October 30 and reject the election’s results. While others took buses to go to Brasilia for the weekend, the AP reported. They have been calling for military action to remove recently elected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and restore Bolsonaro to power instead, claiming that he is a thief who will lead the country into communism. 

After Bolsonaro's defeat in the election, he largely vanished from view, though he addressed his supporters once to tell them they had the power in their hands and that he controls the armed forces. His supporters maintained hope Bolsonaro or the armed forces would lead an intervention to overturn the results.

Bolsonaro's claim about the voting system and elections

Doubting about the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting machines, Bolsonaro insisted the electronic voting system should feature a printed receipt in order to enable audits, but Congress’ Lower House in 2021 voted down his proposal for that change and electoral authorities say the results can already be verified. 

According to AP, Bolsonaro and his party after the elections petitioned the electoral authority to nullify millions of votes cast on the majority of voting machines that featured a software bug — the machines lacked individual identification numbers in their internal logs. The request didn’t say how the bug might affect results, and independent experts said that it would not undermine reliability in any way. The electoral authority’s president swiftly dismissed the request and imposed a multi-million dollar fine on the party for what he called a bad-faith effort.

Bolsonaro's ties with Trump and its allies

According to the report, Former U.S. President Donald Trump was one of Bolsonaro’s few foreign allies and Bolsonaro often exalted his American counterpart’s leadership, even posting photos of himself watching Trump’s addresses.

After Trump lost his reelection bid to US President Joe Biden, then-President Bolsonaro waited five weeks before recognizing Biden’s victory and was one of the final world leaders to do so.

Why is Bolsonaro in the US?

Bolsonaro flew to Florida two days before Lula’s inauguration on January 1, when the outgoing president traditionally bestows the presidential sash to his successor.

According to AP, though Bolsonaro hasn’t specified the reasons for his departure, analysts have speculated that it is an attempt to avoid potential prosecution in connection with several ongoing investigations targeting him, blame from supporters for not mobilizing the armed forces or taking responsibility for his supporters’ actions. 

(With inputs from AP)