Brazil: Bolsonaro supporters ask for a military intervention in front of the barracks

Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters gathered this Tuesday, Republic Day, in front of the barracks in several Brazilian cities to request a military intervention with the purpose of preventing the inauguration of the president-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The largest concentrations took place in front of the Army headquarters, in Brasiliaand before him Southeast Military Commandin sao paulowhere the demonstrators insistently requested that the Armed Forces “Save Brazil”.

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The protesters were mostly dressed in the Brazilian team shirt, carried flags and many of them carried signs in Portuguese or English stating that Brazil “it was stolen” in the elections on October 30.

Today’s protests occurred despite the fact that the Armed Forces They have expressed their express support for democracy and have recognized its fullaccordance” with the result of the elections, in which Lula defeated the president Jair Bolsonaro by a narrow margin of 1.8 percentage points.

The military audited the voting system and found no indication of fraud in the elections, but they have also not ruled out the possibility that it could have been committed.

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Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro take shelter from the rain during a demonstration to demand federal intervention in front of the Army headquarters in Brasilia on November 15, 2022. (Photo by Sergio Lima / AFP) (SERGIO LIMA /)

Bolsonaro himself has allowed the transition process to begin, although he has not come to publicly acknowledge his defeat at the polls.

From the day after the elections, the far-right groups began the protests, which in the first days they led hundreds of truckers to block dozens of highways across the country.

These blockades were lifted four days after the elections, after Bolsonaro asked his followers to refrain from blocking the roads, although at that time the retired Army captain justified the demonstrations and described them as “legitimate”.

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Since then, small groups have remained camped out in front of some barracks, but protesters have only returned to the streets in significant numbers on holidays, such as the Day of the Dead and today, Republic Day.

In a statement released on the eve of this holiday, the Army reiterated that it is at the service of the “freedom, independence and development” from Brazil and who has “the noble mission of defense of the homeland and the guarantee of constitutional powers and law and order.”

The message from the military concludes by saying that the Army “knew how to interpret the desires of the people it serves”, an ambiguous phrase that has been interpreted by Bolsonaro groups, where false news proliferates, as an invitation to demonstrate.

Source: Elcomercio