Brazil's President Lula sacks 40 guards for presidential residence riots, criticises military
By Team Newsable | First Published Jan 18, 2023, 9:20 AM ISTSpeaking to reporters Lula had said that security force members were complicit in letting a mob of supporters of far-right former leader Bolsonaro storm the main buildings that form the seat of power in Brasilia.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday removed as many as 40 troops guarding the presidential residence after expressing distrust in the military for failing to act against demonstrators that ransacked government buildings on January 8.
Lula's decision was published in the government’s official gazette and came as Brazil's prosecutor general charged as many as 39 people who were among the thousands who stormed government buildings in an effort to overturn former president Jair Bolsonaro's loss in the October election.
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Speaking to reporters Lula had said that security force members were complicit in letting a mob of supporters of far-right former leader Bolsonaro storm the main buildings that form the seat of power in Brasilia.
The president's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who would replace the troops guarding the residence.
Most of the troops guarding the Alvorada palace, as the presidential residence is called, are from the army, but some are also members of the Navy, Air Force and a militarised police force. Investigations into the rampage have begun to show apparently intentional lapses in security that allowed it to occur.
The Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Congress, the Planalto presidential palace and the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the result of the October election narrowly won by Lula.
"There were many people who were complicit in this among the military police. Many people from the armed forces were complicit," Lula told reporters.
"I am convinced that the door to the palace was opened to allow these people in because I did not see that the door was broken," he added.
Lula has also stepped up criticism of the army for not doing anything to discourage a two-month-old encampment of Bolsonaro supporters outside its headquarters, where they clamored for the military to overturn the presidential election result.
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Over a thousand people were detained in the January 8 riot, which had many similarities to the January 6, 2021, that witnessed disturbances at the US Congress by mobs seeking to reverse former President Donald Trump's defeat in the November election.
Those now charged are facing offences of armed criminal association, violent attempt to subvert the democratic state of law, staging a coup and damage to public property, the prosecutor-general’s office said in a written statement Monday night. Their identities have not yet been released.
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