On the afternoon of January 8, Congresswoman-elect Silvia Waiãpi shared a video on Instagram that was taken from the roof of the Congress building in Brasília. In it, an unidentified female voice can be heard saying: “We just took power. We are inside Congress. All the people are here on the roof. Look at this, this will go down in history, in the history of my grandchildren, of my great-grandchildren.”
The video’s author, also unidentified, then declares, “Congress is ours, we’re in, now we’re not leaving.”
In her Instagram caption, Ms. Waiãpi wrote: “The people have taken the Ministries Esplanade today! Power has been taken by the Brazilian people, dissatisfied with the red government.” She later criticized media reports that called the rioters “radicals” and “terrorists.”
The congresswoman-elect soon deleted her posts.
It is unclear whether Ms. Waiãpi appears in the video herself or whether she was present during the storming of Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace.
Still, the mere posting of social media content glorifying the attack was enough to include her and two other far-right politicians in separate investigations by Brazil’s federal prosecutors and Supreme Court, who accuse the trio of inciting the anti-democratic acts.
Bolsonaro’s biggest indigenous fan
A close ally of Mr. Bolsonaro, Ms. Waiãpi was the only indigenous member of Congress elected in the Amazon region in last year’s election, representing the state of Amapá.
Because of her fealty to the ex-president, she has been largely disowned by Brazil’s indigenous rights movement, with Indigenous Peoples Minister Sônia Guajajara noting that “whoever represents...
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