A year after pro-Bolsonaro riots and dozens of arrests, Brazil is still recovering
ABC News
Unprecedented riots in support of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro took place on Jan. 8, 2023 in government buildings in the capital, Brasilia
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's Congress has everything ready to open an exhibit Monday featuring pieces including a tapestry crafted by renowned artist Burle Marx and a replica of the country’s Constitution dated 1988.
The display is notable not because of the rarity of the objects, but because they are the living memory of one of the grimmest episodes in Brazil's recent history: As unprecedented riots in support of former President Jair Bolsonaro took place on Jan. 8, 2023 in government buildings in the capital Brasilia, the tapestry was damaged and the replica Constitution was taken.
Many saw the rioting as part of a failed attempt by Bolsonaro to remain in power following his election loss. A year and hundreds of arrests later, Brazil is still recovering.
“Brazil’s society still doesn’t know how to handle what happened, there’s no consensus,” said Creomar de Souza, founder of political risk consultancy Dharma Politics. “Brazil’s society is now in extreme opposites. And parts of those opposites are in a place that they cannot reconcile with the other.”
Mimicking the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by defenders of outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington, thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court buildings, in one of the biggest challenges to Latin America’s most populous democracy.
