Police target pro-Bolsonaro rioters for December 12 vandalism

Bolsonaro supporters torched vehicles in Brasília earlier this month. Photo: Pedro Ladeira/Folhapress

On December 12, multiple groups of Bolsonaro supporters staged a series of violent acts as electoral courts certified Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election win. Their actions included torching a bus in Brasília and the attempted storming of the Federal Police headquarters.

The Feds have launched an operation across eight states targeting people who carried out those acts — as well as some of those who financed them. So far, law enforcement has identified at least 40 people who vandalized public and private property, and marshals have arrested at least four people.

Seven more should be placed under temporary arrest, including a suspect of planting a bomb in a tanker truck near the capital’s airport.

Another man, who admitted to manufacturing the explosive device, has been in police custody since the weekend.

Operation Nero, named in reference to the Roman emperor who fiddled as Rome burned, got the green light from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who acts as Brazil’s top election official and oversees multiple investigations around far-right organizations trying to disrupt democracy in Brazil.

Senator-elect Flávio Dino, Brazil’s future justice minister, used his Twitter profile to comment on the operation. “Political motivations do not legitimize arson, attacks on the Federal Police headquarters, vandalism, and bombings. Freedom of expression does not cover terrorism,” he said.

https://twitter.com/FlavioDino/status/1608418247724109826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The October 30 runoff election was the closest in Brazilian democratic history, and supporters of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro have violently challenged the results — from trying to block federal highways to carrying out vandalism in Brasília.

Security concerns for Sunday’s inauguration ceremony led law enforcement to beef up preparations for the event, and the Supreme Court barred citizens from bearing firearms in Brasília until January 2. Local authorities could limit how many people will be allowed to be present at the Esplanade of Ministries.

Amanda Audi

Amanda Audi is a journalist specializing in politics and human rights. She is the former executive director of Congresso em Foco and worked as a reporter for The Intercept Brasil, Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, Gazeta do Povo, Poder360, among others. In 2019, she won the Comunique-se Award for best-written media reporter and won the Mulher Imprensa award for web journalism in 2020