After months of violence before, during, and after the presidential elections in October, few in Brazil believed that 2023 would start smoothly. 

Unwilling to accept defeat, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who had been engaged in focused terrorist actions —such as a failed attack involving a truck bomb near the airport in the capital Brasília, and the sabotage of power lines— decided to amplify the violence by attempting a coup d’état on January 8. 

The buildings of the National Congress, the Supreme Federal Court, and the Palácio do Planalto, the president’s official workplace, were looted and vandalized by thousands of Bolsonaristas, with the connivance of the police and armed forces who simply stood by as the Praça dos Três Poderes was overrun. The scenes of destruction were followed live around the whole world, and Brazil is left trying to recover from the trauma and understand the magnitude of what happened.

“Bolsonaro was a coup monger from the start and he spent four years telling his supporters to do exactly what they did today. This fascist display has been years in the making,” said Celso Rocha de Barros, a Ph.D. in sociology and a columnist at Folha de São Paulo.

Full article at Latino Rebels’ website. Date of publication: 30/01/2023.