A defeated president falsely claims that the election was rigged. After months of baseless claims of fraud, an angry mob of his supporters stormed Parliament. They overpowered the police and sabotaged the headquarters of the national government, threatening the country’s democratic institutions.
The similarities between Sunday’s mob violence in Brazil and the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, are obvious: Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former right-wing president, has found way in months to undermine the outcome of an election he lostin the same way Donald J. Trump did following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s allies who helped spread disinformation about the 2020 election were move to sow doubt in the results of the Brazilian presidential election in October.
Those efforts by Mr Bolsonaro and his allies have now culminated in an – albeit implausible – attempt to overturn the election results in Brazil and restore the former president to power. in the same way like January 6the crowds that had flocked to the Brazilian capital overwhelmed the police on the outer perimeter of the National Assembly building and poured into the hall of power — break the windowget valuable items and posing for photos in the abandoned legislative chambers.
The two attacks don’t quite match. January 6th crowd tried to stop official certification of the results of the 2020 electiona final ceremonial step is taken before the new president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., takes office on January 20.
But Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the new president of Brazil, has been sworn in more than a week ago. The results of the presidential election were certified by national electoral court, not its legislature. No formal proceedings were disrupted on Sunday and the Brazilian Congress was not in session.
The mob violence on January 6, 2021, “went straight to the heart of the changing government,” and the attack in Brazil was not “as heavily symbolic,” it said. Carl Tobiasprofessor of constitutional law at the University of Richmond.
And Mr. Bolsonaro, who had a close relationship with Mr. Trump during their years in officenot near the capital, resided in Orlando, Fla., about 150 miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
However, the Brasília riots drew widespread condemnation, including from US lawmakers, with many Democrats draw comparison between it and storm the US Capitol.
“Democracies around the world must act quickly to make it clear that there will be no support for the right-wing insurgents storming the Brazilian Congress,” said Representative Jamie Raskin. wrote on Twitter. “These fascists modeled on Trump’s January 6 rioters must end up in the same place: prison.”
Congressman George Santosa Republican from New York under criminal investigation by the Brazilian government, apparently one of the first elected officials from his party condemn mob violence in a Twitter post on Sunday, but he made no connection to January 6.
Many lawmakers who condemned the violence lived through the attack on the Capitol just over two years ago. Mr. Raskin is impeachment leader in Mr. Trump’s second impeachment trial over his role in inciting crowds.
In the final aftershocks of Sunday’s January 6 attacks, hours after the Brazilian riots began, Mr Bolsonaro posted a message on social media. call for peace, in the same way that Mr. Trump did. Authorities have announced that they have the situation under control.
