A man carrying explosives died Wednesday evening, November 13, in Brasilia after trying in vain to enter the building of the Supreme Court of Brazil. An attempted attack, according to the authorities, a few days before a G20 summit.
For the Brazilian authorities, there is no shadow of a doubt: it was a failed attack. A man carrying explosives died Wednesday evening, November 13, in Brasilia after trying in vain to enter the Supreme Court building, a few days before a G20 summit. “First there was the explosion (of a) car”then a “individual approached the Federal Supreme Court, tried to enter, did not succeed and the explosion occurred in front of the door”declared to the press the vice-governor of Brasilia, Celina Leao.
According to preliminary information, it was a «suicide»continued the manager, evoking the track of“a lone wolf”. The man reportedly wore an explosives belt. According to a police document published by the GloboNews channel, his name was Francisco Wanderley Luiz and was also the owner of the car. The vice governor said clues point to him. During local elections in 2020, he was a candidate for the post of municipal councilor under the colors of the Liberal Party of Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right president then in power. The federal police announced that they had opened an investigation into “the attacks”.
“There are crazy people everywhere and of all political persuasions”reacted Wednesday evening on X Fabio Wajngarten, advisor to Jair Bolsonaro, after the disclosure of the alleged identity of the attacker. “Making generalizations and amalgamations amounts to villainy and persecution”he asserted.
The specter of the attacks of January 8, 2023 awakened
Police conducting a patrol spotted the vehicle on fire and saw the individual rushing out, reported Sergeant Santos, of the Federal District Military Police (which includes Brasilia). “There is some kind of bomb in the car, several explosives connected by bricks, but it did not completely catch fire”he detailed. The Supreme Court had previously indicated that at the end of a session “two loud explosions were heard” and that the judges and staff on site were evacuated “as a precautionary measure”. The Supreme Court is located on the Place des Trois-Pouvoirs, where it faces the presidential palace and the Parliament. Lula was not at the presidential palace at the time of the explosions, according to a presidential spokesperson.
This supposed attempted attack targeting a major institution of Brazilian democracy awakens the memory of the far-right riots against the seats of the executive, legislative and judicial branches in the same square in the capital in January 2023. January 8 2023, a week after Lula's return to power, thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, defeated in the presidential election at the end of 2022, stormed and ransacked the headquarters of institutions on the Place des Trois-Pouvoirs. The attacks of January 8 were “very significant, sad too, and of course led to a change in the security rules of all powers, of all buildings housing the three powers”noted the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco.
The alleged attack also takes place in a particularly strong context: left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is hosting a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, Monday and Tuesday, and a state visit from the Chinese president. Xi Jinping in Brasilia on Wednesday.
