Brasilia rampage: Bolsonaro eyes return to Brazil, judge orders arrest of his minister

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, on Tuesday, said that he might return to the country earlier than originally scheduled.

After a brazen attack on government buildings in Brazil’s capital on Sunday by Bolsonaro supporters, the Joe Biden administration is under pressure to expel Bolsonaro from a post-presidential retreat in Florida, reported the Associated Press.

Bolsonaro was originally scheduled for a return to Brazil in late January. Talking to CNN’s Portuguese-language affiliate in Brazil, he said, “I came to spend some time away with my family but these weren’t calm days. First, there was this sad episode in Brazil and then my hospitalization.”

Bolsonaro arrived in Florida in late December. He skipped the January 1 swearing-in of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who became the first elected Brazilian president not to receive the presidential sash from his predecessor since democracy was restored in the 1980s, reported Associated Press.

His visit to Florida was suddenly noticed after Sunday’s attack by thousands of die-hard supporters who had been camping for weeks outside a military base in Brasilia, refusing to accept Bolsonaro’s narrow defeat in an October runoff. Their invasion of Brazil’s congress and presidential palace left behind shattered glass, smashed computers and slashed artwork.

Meanwhile, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered the arrest of the capital’s most recent public security chief on Tuesday after Bolsonaro supporters led a rampage through government buildings, reported Reuters.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the arrest of Anderson Torres, after protesters ransacked the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential offices on Sunday.

Torres was Bolsonaro’s justice minister before taking over this month as the public security chief for Brasilia.

Torres was not in Brasilia when the protesters vandalized the government buildings. On Tuesday, he said he would return to Brazil from Orlando and turn himself in to justice. He was on a vacation with his family when the riots happened.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes also requested the arrest of Fabio Augusto Vieira, the head of Brasilia’s military police, one of a number of officials responsible for protecting the key Brasilia government buildings. Vieira could not immediately be reached for comment, Reuters reported.