The supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, have stormed the country’s congress and supreme court.
Bolsonaro lost the presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in October 2022, but his supporters are protesting the outcome, calling for Lula’s resignation and for the military to intervene.
Protesters who stormed the presidential palace destroyed property and attacked police vans. The police have used tear gas on the protesters.
Lula, who is on an official trip to São Paulo state, described the protest as “acts of vandals and fascists”.
“We are going to find out who are the financiers of these vandals who went to Brasilia and they will all pay with the force of law,” Lula said.
Brazil’s protest has been compared to a mob attack on the US Capitol Hill building in 2021, in which four people were reported killed.
While Congress was sitting to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, supporters of President Donald Trump breached police lines and stormed the building.
Trump had asked his supporters to march to Congress after refusing to concede the election to Biden.
Bolsonaro, who is currently in the United States, is said to have ties to the Trump campaign.
