Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence, John Brady TD, has condemned the storming of Brazil’s democratic institutions by right-wing supporters of defeated candidate Jair Bolsonaro. 

Teachta Brady said that this attack can only be described as an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of Brazil. 

So far, Bolsonaro has offered only a tepid response to the violence, refusing to outright condemn the actions of the mob.

The Wicklow TD said:

“I categorically condemn the assault on democracy which took place yesterday in Brazil. The government of President Lulu are the democratically elected and legal representatives of the Brazilian people.

“I welcome the response of the international community in their utter condemnation of what was in effect an attempt to overthrow a democratic government, by right-wing supporters of Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept the outcome of the Brazilian general election.

“The scenes we witnessed yesterday were painfully and frighteningly reminiscent of the attempt by supporters of the former US President Donald Trump to storm the US Congress.

“It is doubly worrying that there have been allegations by President Lulu that members of the security forces were negligent in their response to the actions of the mob, with the military police force largely absent, claiming that the security forces were guilty of incompetence, bad faith, or malice. 

“Brazil’s supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes claimed that the attacks could only have taken place with the ‘acquiescence, or direct involvement of the security and intelligence authorities’.

“The fact that the rioters had been using social media to plan and organise an assault on government buildings for two weeks, without a police response, is very worrying.

“Brazil is a country that knows too well the pain of a military dictatorship, having endured twenty-one years of military rule between 1964 and 1985, in which thousands died. 

“The international community must fully support the democratically elected Brazilian government in their attempts to uphold and defend democracy.”