Maximum alert in Brasilia: security measures were reinforced on Wednesday, January 11, in the capital and throughout Brazil to avoid new excesses with the call for demonstrations by Bolsonarists, three days after the ransacking of places of power in the capital.
On social networks, messages from supporters of the far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro call for demonstrations on Wednesday evening in several major Brazilian cities, including Brasilia, "to regain power".
The Deputy Minister of Justice, Ricardo Cappelli, announced at a press conference that the area of the Esplanade des Ministries, a large green space that surrounds the government buildings and the Congress, would be closed to vehicle traffic, and that " barriers and filter dams with search" had been erected for pedestrians.
"All the personnel have been mobilized (...) There is not the slightest possibility of seeing the unacceptable events of January 8 reproduce in the capital", he assured.
"A group of madmen"
Ricardo Cappelli was appointed by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday evening to take over command of security in Brasilia after the staggering Brazilian remake of the invasion of the Capitol in Washington two years earlier.
>> To read on France 24.com: behind the pro-Bolsonaro attack, the leg of the American far right
Hordes of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro rejecting his electoral defeat to Lula in late October have wreaked havoc in the capital, invading the Presidential Palace, the Supreme Court and Congress, and destroying everything in their path, including works of art .
Several hundred people have been arrested and the authorities are investigating to identify those who financed and organized these disturbances.
"It's a group of madmen who have not yet understood that the election is over," President Lula said on Wednesday, during a meeting at the Presidential Palace with representatives of Congress, including the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira.
Arrest warrant for former justice minister
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes announced at the same time heavy penalties for invading public buildings or blocking roads, which will be punished by heavy fines or prison terms, depending on the offences.
This magistrate, who is the bane of the Bolsonarists, promised on Tuesday to "firmly fight terrorism, these putschists who want to establish an exceptional regime".
He issued a warrant for the arrest of Anderson Torres, former justice minister of Jair Bolsonaro, on Tuesday evening for alleged collusion with rioters as the capital's security secretary, a post from which he was removed after the unrest.
Anderson Torres is in the United States, like Jair Bolsonaro, who left Brazil two days before Lula's inauguration, refusing to hand him the presidential sash on January 1.
Denying "any collusion with barbarism", Anderson Torres declared on Twitter that he was going to return to Brazil in order to "present himself to justice" and take care of his defense.
Riot organizer arrested
The ex-president, for his part, was released on Tuesday evening from the Florida hospital where he had been admitted the day before for abdominal pain.
He then shared on Facebook a video of a prosecutor questioning Lula's victory in the second round on October 30, before deleting it a few hours later.
>> To read also: corruption, false information, Covid ... The judicial pans of Jair Bolsonaro
On Wednesday, Ana Priscila Azevedo, suspected of being one of the organizers of the riots, was arrested in Luziânia, near Brasilia, according to the Brazilian press.
This far-right activist is the author of numerous messages of incitement to violence on social networks, where she published a series of selfies taken during the invasion of places of power on Sunday.
With AFP
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