Brasilia, Brazil
CNN
—
A person clenched his fist as he squeezed his higher physique via the small window of a bus leaving the Brazilian Federal Police Headquarters in Brasilia on Tuesday.
“Victory will be ours,” he screamed. “This is our freedom!”
He is one of the more than 1,500 supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who were arrested after breaking into the nation’s Congress, Supreme Court and Presidential Palace this previous Sunday – some armed with knives, axes and even grenades – in scenes reminiscent of the January 6 Capitol revolt final yr in the United States.
Many are now being launched by authorities after processing by the Federal Police and won’t face expenses.
“Our flag will never be red,” he saved chanting, in reference to leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers Party.
Next to him, fellow Bolsonaro supporter Wagner Lopes Loureiro was equally animated after spending two nights in jail. “Always! I will always continue to fight,” he stated. “I cannot let this disgrace continue.”
In photos: Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazilian Congress
The pair, like many of Bolsonaro’s supporters concerned in Sunday’s assault on Brazil’s seat of authorities, refuse to acknowledge the outcomes of Brazil’s nationwide presidential vote final yr, which noticed Lula narrowly win one of the tightest contests in a long time.
Authorities have launched a big portion of the pro-Bolsonaro protesters arrested in reference to the riots and ransacking of authorities services in Brasilia.
As they depart, most deny any wrongdoing.
Among those that stay in custody, one protester instructed CNN that she had entered authorities buildings together with the protesters who compelled their manner in, but additionally denied being half of any violence.
“Right now (the police) are still interrogating people. Yesterday they did it with the oldest and those with health problems,” she stated of the scene inside the police headquarters.
“It’s chaos here because we don’t know anything, they can’t say exactly if people are imprisoned, if they’re going to get out,” she stated.
So many protesters have been taken into custody since Sunday that authorities needed to home them inside a health club at the headquarters. Many have been allowed to maintain their telephones, some sending photos and video of the location.
The jailed protester instructed CNN that she had spent 50 days protesting outdoors the Brazilian military headquarters in Brasilia, hoping the army would intervene to overturn the election she believes was stolen from Bolsonaro.
The former president had stoked considerations about Brazil’s electoral system forward of the election by criticizing the nation’s digital poll system and speculating that it could possibly be corrupted. He additionally refused to explicitly concede the vote. However, Brazil’s army discovered no signal of vote-rigging in the election and Bolsonaro has condemned Sunday’s riots.
“Our intention? Not agreeing with everything that was happening,” the protester stated. “The ballot boxes, we keep claiming this all the time, asking for help from the Armed Forces, to help the people. Because it was their coup.”
For her, at the coronary heart of the problem is Lula, a two-time former president who loved nice recognition in earlier phrases however later served time on corruption expenses. Lula’s conviction was annulled on a jurisdictional technicality by a Brazilian decide in March 2021. The decide ordered Lula’s case be retried in the right jurisdiction, clearing the manner for his political rebound.
“I don’t accept Lula,” she stated. “We didn’t agree that he should be president and we wanted to know how many people voted for the other side.”
She says she’s not a terrorist, as a result of she was unarmed. “I’m not a terrorist. I don’t have weapons,” she stated. “I couldn’t see who started it. It was quick.”
And she doesn’t remorse her position in one of the darkest days in Brazilian democracy.
“I don’t regret it. I don’t regret it. Because I wasn’t armed, I didn’t go with a mask, I didn’t go with goggles. I didn’t go with a bomb. I was there democratically, for the future of my children, for something I believe,” she stated.
“We came looking for our future. Isn’t it democratic for us to make an act for something?”
But for many of Brazil – and even many of those that would have most popular Bolsonaro to stay president – Sunday’s riots have been an affront to the very democracy she believes she’s defending.