Brazil's Lula slams 'acts of terrorism'

BRASILIA — Brazilian security forces cleared protest camps on Monday and arrested 1,500 people as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned "acts of terrorism "after rioters stormed the seat of power, unleashing chaos on the capital.

Hundreds of soldiers and police officers mobilized to dismantle an improvised camp outside the army's headquarters in Brasilia.

There, nearly 3,000 supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro had set up tents — used as a base for the sea of protesters who ran riot inside the presidential palace, the Congress and the Supreme Court for around four hours on Sunday.

Lula da Silva, famously known as Lula, who took office on Jan 1 after a bitterly divisive election win over Bolsonaro, returned to work in the pillaged presidential palace, where reporters saw the wreckage that remained of the previous day's havoc: Trashed artwork and offices, shattered windows and doors, broken glass strewed across the floor, and furniture dragged into a reflecting pool.

Lula, the 77-year-old who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, met with the leaders of both houses of Congress and the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and joined them in condemning what many called the South American country's version of the Capitol riots in the United States two years ago.

"The three powers of the republic, the defenders of democracy and the constitution, reject the terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred," they said in a joint statement.

Lula accepted an invitation to meet with US President Joe Biden next month in Washington, US officials said.

Bolsonaro, who narrowly lost the October elections, said on Twitter that he had been hospitalized in Florida with abdominal pains stemming from a near-fatal knife attack when he was campaigning for the presidency in 2018.

Bolsonaro has alleged he is the victim of a conspiracy against him by Brazil's electoral authorities.

The ex-president, dubbed the "Tropical Trump", traveled to Orlando on the second-last day of his term — snubbing Lula's inauguration, in a break with tradition.

Bolsonaro, 67, condemned the "pillaging" in Brasilia on Sunday night, but rejected Lula's claim he incited the attacks, and defended the right to "peaceful protests".

As the nation continued to come to grips with Sunday's stunning violence, hundreds of people gathered along a major avenue in downtown Sao Paulo to defend Brazilian democracy and demand punishment for the people who stormed the halls of power a day earlier.

"I have not endured what I have in this life to see what I saw yesterday — my people, my country, divided in such a way," said Edi Valladares, a 61-year-old teacher.

Earlier in the day, large contingents of riot police officers deployed to lock down the capital's Three Powers Square, home to three government buildings.

More denouncement

Condemnation continued to pour in from around the world.

In a joint statement ahead of summit talks in Mexico City, Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the attacks and said they "stand with Brazil as it safeguards its democratic institutions".

Many drew the inevitable comparison to Jan 6, 2021, when supporters of then-US president Donald Trump invaded the Capitol in Washington in a violent, failed bid to stop Congress from certifying his election loss.

Lula, who was in the southeastern city of Araraquara visiting a flood-hit region when the riot started, signed a decree on Sunday declaring a federal intervention in Brasilia, giving his government special powers over the local police force to restore law and order in the capital.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes suspended Brasilia Governor Ibaneis Rocha, a Bolsonaro ally, from his post for 90 days, on grounds of "criminal negligence".

Agencies - Xinhua