Brazilian security forces cleared protest camps Monday and arrested 1,500 people as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned “acts of terrorism” after a far-right mob stormed the seat of power, unleashing chaos on the capital.
Hundreds of soldiers and police mobilized to dismantle an improvised camp outside the army’s headquarters in Brasilia, where some 3,000 supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro had set up tents — used as a base for the sea of protesters who ran riot inside the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court for around four hours Sunday.
Lula, who took office on January 1 after a bitterly divisive election win over Bolsonaro, returned to work in the pillaged presidential palace, where AFP reporters saw the wreckage that remained of the previous day’s havoc: trashed artwork and offices, shattered windows and doors, broken glass strewn across the floor, and furniture dragged into a reflecting pool.
Lula, the 77-year-old veteran leftist who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, met with the leaders of both houses of Congress and the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and joined them in condemning what many called the South American country’s version of the Capitol riots in Washington two years ago.
Advertisement
20250715_donacion_sangre_central_728x90
20250701_vacunacion-influenza-728x90
20250701_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20250701_dengue_728x90
20250501_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
“The three powers of the republic, the defenders of democracy and the constitution, reject the terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred,” they said in a joint statement.
Bolsonaro, who narrowly lost the October elections, was meanwhile hospitalized with abdominal pains, his wife said.
Media reports said the ex-president was admitted to hospital in Orlando, Florida, where the politician dubbed the “Tropical Trump” traveled on the second-to-last day of his term — snubbing Lula’s inauguration, in a break with tradition.
It was the latest in a series of health problems stemming from a stabbing attack that nearly claimed Bolsonaro’s life during his winning 2018 presidential campaign.
Bolsonaro, 67, took to Twitter Sunday night to condemn the “pillaging” in Brasilia, but rejected Lula’s claim he incited the attacks, and defended the right to “peaceful protests.”
Advertisement
20250715_donacion_sangre_central_728x90
20250701_vacunacion-influenza-728x90
20250701_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20250701_dengue_728x90
20250501_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
‘Traces of Trumpism’
Large contingents of riot police deployed to lock down the capital’s Three Powers Square, home to the iconic modernist buildings that serve as the headquarters of the three branches of government.
Many Brasilia residents were still in shock as they returned to their normal workday routines.
“People have the right to express their opinions, but not destroy our national heritage,” 43-year-old resident Ionar Bispo told AFP.
Condemnation continued to pour in from around the world, with Pope Francis criticizing the unrest as a sign of “weakening of democracy” in the Americas.
In a joint statement ahead of summit talks in Mexico City, US President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the attacks and said they “stand with Brazil as it safeguards its democratic institutions.”
Advertisement
20250715_donacion_sangre_central_728x90
20250701_vacunacion-influenza-728x90
20250701_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20250701_dengue_728x90
20250501_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
Many drew the inevitable comparison to January 6, 2021, when supporters of then-US president Donald Trump invaded the Capitol in a violent, failed bid to stop Congress from certifying his election loss.
Spain’s foreign minister said the attacks in Brasilia bore “traces of Trumpism,” and echoed condemnation from the United Nations and European Union.
But Brazilian Justice Minister Flavio Dino said there were “two key differences” between the attacks on Brasilia and Washington: “we had zero deaths, and more people were arrested.”
Investigation begins
Lula, who was in the southeastern city of Araraquara visiting a flood-hit region when the riot started, signed a decree Sunday declaring a federal intervention in Brasilia, giving his government special powers over the local police force to restore law and order in the capital.
His government vowed to find and arrest those who planned and financed the attacks.
Advertisement
20250715_donacion_sangre_central_728x90
20250701_vacunacion-influenza-728x90
20250701_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20250701_dengue_728x90
20250501_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes suspended Brasilia Governor Ibaneis Rocha, a Bolsonaro ally, from his post for 90 days, on grounds of “criminal negligence.”
The ruling came just after Rocha himself fired the capital’s public security chief, Anderson Torres, who previously served as Bolsonaro’s justice minister.
The attorney general’s office said it had asked the Supreme Court to issue arrest warrants for Torres “and all other public officials responsible for acts and omissions” leading to the unrest.
Moraes also ordered the security forces to disperse anti-government protests outside military bases nationwide.
Hardline Bolsonaro supporters have been protesting outside army barracks calling for a military intervention to keep Lula from power since his election win.
Advertisement
20250715_donacion_sangre_central_728x90
20250701_vacunacion-influenza-728x90
20250701_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20250701_dengue_728x90
20250501_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
Following the ruling, soldiers and police broke up camps in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, as well as Brasilia.
Lula narrowly won the October 30 runoff election by a score of 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent.
Bolsonaro has alleged he is the victim of a conspiracy against him by Brazil’s courts and electoral authorities.
The US Supreme Court gives the green light to Trump to dismantle the Department of Education
The US Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to go ahead with his plan of mass layoffs in the Department of Education, which until now was blocked by an order from a lower court.
The decision overturned a temporary blocking resolution issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts in response to a class action from about twenty states, teachers’ unions and school districts.
The opinion so far prevented the federal government from carrying out the plan it announced at the end of March to cut, this year alone, a third of the more than 4,100 workers in this portfolio.
The Trump Administration’s plan, which has admitted that it cannot close the Department because that is the responsibility of Congress, involves dismantling the agency to the point that it only maintains basic competences related, for example, to the management of aid, scholarships or student loans.
The long-term project is to cut half of the staff working in this portfolio with the idea of eliminating what the Government, which wants to return educational skills to the states, considers a waste of the federal budget.
As usual in cases that are resolved by emergency channels, the majority of judges in favor of the ruling did not explain the basis of their decision, rejected by the three liberal judges of the court, Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan.
For the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, the judicial decision confirms “the obvious, that the president of the United States, as head of the executive branch, has the authority in the final instance to make decisions about personnel, the administrative organization and the day-to-day of the federal agencies.”
“As well as today’s ruling is an important victory for students and families, it is a shame that the highest court in the country has had to intervene to allow President Trump to move forward with the reforms that the Americans chose him to implement using the authorities granted by the Constitution,” the head of Education said in a statement.
Colombian Senator Uribe Turbay, shows clinical improvement and begins neurological rehabilitation
Colombian senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, seriously injured in the head in an attack on June 7, has had a clinical improvement and a process of neurological rehabilitation began, reported this Monday the Santa Fe Foundation of Bogotá, where he has been hospitalized since then.
“During the last few days the patient has shown a favorable and stable clinical response, evidenced both in the recent diagnostic images taken (magnetic resonance, tomography, Doppler, among others), and in his response to surgical and medical interventions,” says the medical report.
According to the Santa Fe Foundation, “in this context, and as part of the comprehensive care process, the neurorehabilitation protocol was initiated.”
The medical report, the first disclosed by the Santa Fe Foundation in the last eleven days, points out, however, that the 39-year-old politician continues with a “reserved” neurological prognosis.
“Miguel Uribe Turbay requires continuing his management in the Intensive Care Unit, with mechanical ventilatory support and under sedation, as well as with hemodynamic and neurological monitoring for the early detection of any change,” the statement adds.
Uribe Turbay, a member of the right-wing Democratic Center party, was shot twice in the head and one in the left leg when he was leading a rally in a park in the Bogota neighborhood of Modelia, an attack that has revived among Colombians the ghost of political violence that marked the 1990 elections in which three presidential candidates were killed.
Due to the severity of the injuries suffered, the politician, one of the candidates of the Democratic Center for the 2026 presidential elections, has undergone several surgeries in Santa Fe.
The authorities, for their part, have made some progress in the investigation of the attack, for which five people have been arrested, including the hit man who shot him, a 15-year-old boy who was found with a Glock pistol used in the attack.
The other four detainees have been accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of participating in the preparation and cover-up of the attack, and among them is Elder José Arteaga Hernández, alias ‘el Costeño’, considered by the authorities as a key piece for being the alleged organizer of the attempted murder.
Zelenski proposes the Minister of Economy, Sviridenko, as the new prime minister
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed on Monday the current Minister of Economy, Yulia Sviridenko, as the new prime minister to replace the current head of government, Denis Shmigal.
“I have proposed that Yulia Sviridenko lead the Government of Ukraine and significantly renew her work. I look forward to the presentation of the new Government action plan in the near future,” Zelenski wrote in X after meeting with Sviridenko.
The Ukrainian president spoke with the current Minister of Economy about “concrete measures to double Ukraine’s economic potential, to expand support programs for Ukrainians and to increase domestic weapons production.”
Zelenski and Sviridenko also reviewed the economic agreements signed by Ukraine at the international conference for the reconstruction of the country held in Rome on Thursday and last Friday.
Several Ukrainian media had advanced weeks ago that Sviridenko would soon replace Denis Shmigal as prime minister. At the head of the Economy portfolio, Sviridenko, 39, has been one of the most visible and active figures in the Government in recent months.
