A day following supporters of ousted President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the congress in Brasilia, thousands of Brazilians have called for consequences and tough criminal prosecutions.
“These people need to be punished. The people who ordered this must be punished. And those who financed it must be punished,” said 61-year-old Bety Amin in Sao Paulo. The people who stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace in the capital, Brasilia, would not represent Brazil.
Forgoing punishment “might avoid tensions in the short term, but it prolongs instability,” political scientist Luis Felipe Miguel said in a comment. The country should have learned this lesson following the end of the military dictatorship.
At that time, it was decided not to hold the military responsible for murders and disappearances accountable.
Bolsonaro discharged from Florida hospital
Meanwhile, Brazil’s far-right ex-President Bolsonaro has been released from the hospital following a short stay. According to media reports, shortly following the attack on Brazil’s institutions by his supporters, the former president was treated in a hospital in the city of Orlando, Florida.
According to the Brazilian newspaper “O Globo”, Bolsonaro had suffered from severe abdominal pain. At a campaign event in September 2018, a mentally disturbed man stabbed Bolsonaro and inflicted serious abdominal injuries on him. Since then, Bolsonaro has repeatedly had to go to the hospital for treatment for pain.
Attacks on congresses: parallels and clear differences
The images were almost identical: Similar to almost exactly two years ago, when radical supporters of the ousted US President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol, it was now a mob in Brasilia who followed the example. Bolsonaro’s supporters invaded the country’s most important buildings of democracy. In fact, there are parallels between the two events, but also significant differences.