By Catarina Demony and Lisandra Paraguassu
LISBON (Reuters) – Brazil’s defence minister vowed on Wednesday that the Jan. 8 riots in Brasilia, in which supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings, would “never happen again”.
“We didn’t believe that could happen,” Brazil’s defence minister, Jose Mucio, told Reuters in an interview in Portugal’s capital Lisbon. “We were all caught by surprise and we paid a heavy price for it.”
Supporters of far-right Bolsonaro invaded and vandalised Brazil’s Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court a week after leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office in January, protesting his victory in the October election and calling for a military coup.
Bolsonaro has denied responsibility for the riots which drew comparisons to the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
There is an ongoing police investigation to identify people who participated in, funded or fostered the riots. Brazil’s Congress also is preparing to open an inquiry.
Lula’s top national security adviser, General Marcos Goncalves Dias, resigned last week after a CNN report included footage of him walking around the presidential palace while a mob ransacked government buildings in Brasilia on Jan. 8.
Dias was the chief of Brazil’s military-led Institutional Security Cabinet (GSI), an executive cabinet office.
‘LACK OF TRUST’
Sources close to Lula said Dias did not facilitate the invasion but footage released by CNN Brasil showed other GSI staffers, such as an army captain, distributing water to the invaders.
“The discussion now is whether (GSI) should continue with military (in the leadership) or whether it should be a civilian.” Mucio said. “We have so many problems…that I wouldn’t change it much but this is a personal opinion.”
“I think you can even change (the leadership) little by little instead of changing it in an abrupt way,” he added. “We can change it…later on…so that it doesn’t seem like it was a reprisal…or a materialisation of a lack of trust.”
Mucio said it was up to Lula to decide.
Brazil’s Congress has a growing number of retired and even active-duty officers who tout their military or police credentials as part of their law-and-order appeal.
Aimed at discouraging the politicisation of security forces, Mucio’s ministry has recently made a legislation proposal that would limit military and police officers from running for elected office.
“I think it (the legislation) will be approved (by Congress)… it will help to not mix things up,” Mucio said “Politics with politicians. The (security) forces with the military.”
Mucio´was in Portugal with other ministers as part of a state visit by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the Iberian Peninsula, his first to Europe since taking office.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony in Lisbon and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; Editing by David Gregorio)
