The area around the Parliament building in Brasilia has been cordoned off.
Brasilia:
Supporters of Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the National Congress building on Sunday in a dramatic protest against the inauguration of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva last week, breaking police barricades.
Social media footage showed rioters storming the nearby Planalto presidential palace and Brazil’s Supreme Court, in what was fast emerging as a serious episode of political unrest.
The administration has cordoned off the area around the Parliament House in Brasilia. But hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters, refusing to accept leftist Lula’s election victory, broke free, marched up the ramp and gathered on the roof of the modernist building, an AFP photographer witnessed.
In shocking images uploaded to social media — and reminiscent of the January 6, 2021 invasion of the US Capitol building by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro — a tide of people stormed the National Congress, Waving several Brazilian flags.
The building is where Brazil’s Senate and Chamber of Deputies conduct their legislative business.
Protesters appeared on the iconic building’s roof, but also on several lawns and open spaces around it, including the nearby Planalto palace.
Security forces fired tear gas in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse the protesters.
Bolsonaro, who lost to Lula in the second round of the presidential election on October 30, left Brazil at the end of the year and traveled to the US state of Florida, where Trump now lives.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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