The first time journalist Ady Ferrer saw an invitation to something being referred to as “Selma’s party,” they felt confused. Having monitored several WhatsApp and Telegram groups filled with supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, they knew that calls to social functions were certainly not the norm for these messaging channels.
It was the first week of January, shortly after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in as Brazil’s president and more than two months after his narrow election win over Mr. Bolsonaro. Many of the former president’s supporters refused to accept defeat and took to the streets and social media to voice their dissatisfaction, often calling for military intervention to overturn the election result and keep Mr. Bolsonaro in power.
Intrigued and confused by “Selma’s party,” Mx. Ferrer commented on it with their colleagues, who gathered on their own messaging group on X (formerly Twitter).
Eventually, they would find out that the “party” in question was actually a codename for the January 8 Brasília riots, in which pro-Bolsonaro radicals stormed government buildings in the capital — in what was the biggest violent attack on Brazilian democracy since the end of the military dictatorship.
As the riot unfolded, Mx. Ferrer watched the news in horror. The next day, they set about piecing together all of the events that led up to “Selma’s party,” including statements by Mr. Bolsonaro casting doubt over Brazil’s electronic voting system, reports of voter suppression during the 2022 election runoff, news about putschist camps set up outside Army barracks in Brasília, and the failed attempt to plant...
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