What happened in Brazil was not a repeat of Jan 6 in the US
Al JazeeraJan 11, 2023
Brazil's former justice and public security chief in the Jair Bolsonaro administration, Anderson Torres, was arrested on Saturday. This comes upon his return to the country following an arrest warrant issued by Justice Alexandre de Moraes last Tuesday.
Torres, who was in charge of security for the capital city Brasília when demonstrators stormed major government buildings on Jan. 8, is accused of having colluded with protesters, and failed to act in his role as security chief.
Though unquestionably inspired by the US Capitol attack on Jan. 6, the pro-Bolsonaro insurrection in Brasília was much more dangerous than its American parallel as security forces were permissive and even supportive of the anti-democratic actions. The Armed Forces have long turned a blind eye to people camping around their barracks to demand a coup, and their plans of invading Brazil's Congress were publicly known.
The hypocrisy of Brazil's establishment is blatant and outrageous as federal district officials are being arrested for their alleged omissions that led to riots while Justice Minister Flávio Dino and President Lula also knew about the attack — likely caused by infiltrators — in advance and did nothing to impede it. Additionally, Justice de Moraes stated that democratic people who peacefully protested for months were "terrorists" without trial.
There's a 7% chance that former president Jair Bolsonaro will be extradited back to Brazil before leaving the US, according to the Metaculus prediction community.