Date: January 9, 2023 Time: 12:55:13
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has signed a decree for the federal government to assume security powers in the federal district of Brasilia, after the assault by “vandals” against the country’s main political and judicial institutions.
From the state of Sao Paulo, where Lula had traveled to monitor the ravages caused by the floods, the president has condemned the violence in recent hours, which is “unprecedented.” “It has never been done in the history of this country”, he lamented during a speech in which he recalled his own electoral defeats.
“All the vandals were found and punished,” said the president, before reading out loud the details of a decree that involves intervention on the powers that theoretically fall to Brasilia, whose work had been questioned by the ruling party after the chaos experienced in the streets of the capital.
Thousands of Bolsonaro radicals caused chaos this Sunday in Brasilia by invading and destroying the headquarters of Parliament, the Presidency and the Supreme Court. Lula added that the radicals have been “stimulated” by the ex-governor and that “they will pay with the force of the law” for the disturbances caused.
“We are going to discover the financiers” of these violent and coup-style protests, which “destroyed everything they found in their path,” said Lula, who denounced security failures on the part of the Government of the Federal District of Brasilia.
“Democracy guarantees the right to freedom of expression,” but “requires that people respect the institutions,” said Lula, who was sworn in as Brazil’s head of state on January 1. Lula met this Sunday in Araraquara, in the interior of Sao Paulo, to learn about the damage caused by the heavy rains in recent days in the region.
