Brasília government denies requests for information on January 8 riots

With the end of the federal intervention into Brasília’s security apparatus, the capital’s local government regains on Wednesday autonomy over its police forces — which it lost after the January 8 riots.

The intervention was declared after the Brasília government failed to prepare for massive pro-Jair Bolsonaro demonstrations, despite abundant information that supporters of the former president were being bused into the capital. 

Demonstrators were even escorted by police along the 6.5 kilometers separating their meeting point and the Three Powers Square — despite many bearing weapons and communication devices to coordinate the attacks they would later carry out.

Few officers were on duty around the headquarters of the three branches of government — and even fewer tried to stop the storming and ransacking of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace. Some officers even took selfies as these buildings were being vandalized.

The criminally negligent security response led to the suspension from office of Governor Ibaneis Rocha and the arrest of former Security Secretary Anderson Torres. 

Last week, Deputy Justice Minister Ricardo Cappelli released a 62-page report detailing a sequence of omissions, inconsistencies, and mistakes that allowed the attack to happen. 

The report says it remains impossible to determine exactly how many officers were on duty as the crisis unfolded. Local authorities say 555 police officers were at the scene after the riots began, but Mr. Cappelli says video footage suggests there were no more than 150 agents.

Through the Access to Information Act, The Brazilian Report asked the security secretariat for details on how many agents and cars were deployed, as well as on the arrests and search-and-seizure operations carried out in the aftermath of the riots. All of our requests were denied.

Alan Blanco Cinnanti, the Brasília Security Secretariat’s ombudsman, said the office is unable to provide the data as it “does not have the information on what was requested” — despite being the responsible body for coordinating security operations.

He even suggested that requests for information be made directly to the police department — which operates under the Brasília Security Secretariat.

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