As members of Congress reconvene in Brasília to begin this year’s second legislative session, the January 8 riots still reverberate in Brazil’s capital and are the subject of ongoing investigations by federal and local lawmakers that will continue until November.
A joint congressional inquiry is investigating those involved in the perpetration, funding, and planning of the attacks, while Brasília lawmakers examine the involvement or failure of police forces to contain the attacks.
At a time when there are doubts as to whether the testimonies collected by either inquiry will lead to formal indictments, new findings and a change to the political context might facilitate the process.
Brasília was left scarred by the January 8 riots, when thousands of supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and trashed official government buildings, hoping to overthrow the newly sworn-in Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration.
Now that the mid-year congressional holidays are over, the expectation is that the committees’ work will begin to heat up in the coming weeks. Senator Eliziane Gama, rapporteur of the federal inquiry, tells The Brazilian Report that the following days will be “absolutely intense.”
“During the [parliamentary] recess, we received a great volume of documents, including confidential ones. We are studying them and they will support requests for new lines of inquiry and to gain access to private and confidential information,” Ms. Gama adds.
The renewed impetus of the second legislative session was made evident on Tuesday, as former head of Brazil’s Abin intelligence agency Saulo Moura da Cunha told the congressional inquiry that he personally warned General Gonçalves Dias, former head of the Institutional...
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