Invasion of the Three Powers occurs two years after attack on the Capitol; coup plotters call for military intervention

Ívina Garcia – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – Extremists, supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) pierced blockade on the Esplanade of Ministries and invaded National Congress, the Planalto Palace and the headquarters of the Supreme Court (STF), in Brasilia (DF), this Sunday, 8.

The coup plotters reinforce the request for federal intervention, which has been the keynote of antidemocratic demonstrations throughout the country since the result of the presidential election that gave victory to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

The acts are considered antidemocratic because they call for federal intervention to prevent a legitimately constituted government, according to Law No. 14,197, known as the Law of the Democratic State of Law.

Article 359-L of the law states that it is a crime to “attempt, by the use of violence or grave threat, to abolish the democratic rule of law by preventing or restricting the exercise of constitutional powers”, and Article 359-M states that it is punishable to “attempt to depose, by means of violence or grave threat, the legitimately constituted government.

The action comes two years after the invasion of the Capitol, in the United States, by supporters of former president Donald Trump, on January 6, 2021, which became known as one of the biggest acts against recent democracy. Just as in Brazil, in the USA the protests were against the results of the polls that brought Democrat Joe Biden to power.

Whether in Brazil or in the United States, terrorist acts are the result of political polarization and, mainly, the encouragement of violence. Both Bolsonaro and Trump, defeated at the polls, made speeches that encouraged antidemocratic acts.

Proof of this is the Pew Research Center survey, which showed that in the USA hostilities between Republicans and Democrats have worsened since the election of Donald Trump. According to the respondents, both Republicans and Democrats declared that voters of the “other party” are hard-headed, dishonest, immoral, ignorant and lazy.

Federal intervention

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) decreed this Sunday, 8, federal intervention in Brasília, in the Federal District (DF), to contain the extremist acts that have taken over the federal capital. During the afternoon, coup protesters invaded the National Congress, the Federal Supreme Court (STF), and the Planalto Palace.

The decree is valid until January 31 and appoints Ricardo Garcia Cappelli as intervenor. The purpose of the intervention is to “put an end to the serious impairment of public order in the Federal District, marked by violence and invasion of public agencies”.

“They [the extremists] will realize that democracy guarantees the right to freedom, the right to free communication, free expression, but it also requires that people respect the institutions that were created to strengthen democracy”, the president said in São Paulo, where he traveled to assess the damage caused by rain in the city of Araraquara.