Brazil RiotBrazilian Authorities Clear Government Offices of Rioters, Official Says

Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro had stormed into Congress, presidential offices and the Supreme Court in the capital, building barricades and breaking windows. More than 200 people were arrested.

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Follow our latest updates on Brazil’s anti-democracy riots.

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Jack NicasAndré Spigariol

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Jack Nicas reported from Rio de Janeiro and André Spigariol reported from Brasília. They have covered right-wing attacks on Brazil’s election systems since 2021.

Bolsonaro supporters lay siege to Brazil’s capital.

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Videos shared on social media showed supporters of Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, storming the National Congress in Brasília. The protest comes two months after Mr. Bolsonaro lost his re-election bid.CreditCredit...Evaristo Sa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Follow our latest updates on Brazil’s anti-democracy riots.

Thousands of supporters of Brazil’s ousted former president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices on Sunday to protest what they falsely claim was a stolen election, the violent culmination of years of conspiracy theories advanced by Mr. Bolsonaro and his right-wing allies.

In scenes reminiscent of the Jan. 6 storming of the United States Capitol, protesters in Brasília, Brazil’s capital, draped in the yellow and green of Brazil’s flag surged into the seat of power, setting fires, repurposing barricades as weapons, knocking police officers from horseback and filming their crimes as they committed them.

“We always said we would not give up,” one protester declared as he filmed himself among hundreds of protesters pushing into the Capitol building. “Congress is ours. We are in power.”

For months, protesters had been demanding that the military prevent the newly elected president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from taking office on Jan. 1. Many on the right in Brazil have become convinced, despite the lack of evidence, that October’s election was rigged.

For years, Mr. Bolsonaro had asserted, without any proof, that Brazil’s election systems were rife with fraud and that the nation’s elites were conspiring to remove him from power.

Mr. Lula said Sunday that those false claims had fueled the attack on the plaza, known as Three Powers Square because of the presence of the three branches of government. Mr. Bolsonaro “triggered this,” he said in an address to the nation. “He spurred attacks on the three powers whenever he could. This is also his responsibility.”

Late Sunday, Mr. Bolsonaro criticized the protests, saying on Twitter that peaceful demonstrations are part of democracy, but that “destruction and invasions of public buildings, like what occurred today,” are not. But he also rejected Mr. Lula’s accusations, saying they were “without proof.”

At his inauguration, Mr. Lula said that uniting Brazil, Latin America’s largest country and one of the world’s biggest democracies, would be a central goal of his administration. The invasion of the capital suggests that the nation’s divisions are more profound than many had imagined, and it saddles the new president with a major challenge just one week into his administration.

After Mr. Lula was inaugurated, protesters put out calls online for others to join them for a massive demonstration on Sunday. It quickly turned violent.

Hundreds of protesters ascended a ramp to the roof of the congressional building in Brasília, the capital, while a smaller group invaded the building from a lower level, according to witnesses and videos of the scene posted on social media. Other groups of protesters splintered off and broke into the presidential offices and the Supreme Court, which are in the same plaza.

The scene was chaotic.

Protesters streamed into the government buildings, which were largely empty on a Sunday, breaking windows, overturning furniture and looting items inside, according to videos they posted online.

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A shattered window in the president’s office on Sunday. Credit...Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

The crowds shouted that they were taking their country back, and that they would not be stopped. Outnumbered, the police fired what appeared to be rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear-gas canisters, including from two helicopters overhead.

“Police are cowardly trying to expel the people from Congress, but there is no way, because even more are arriving,” said one protester in a video filmed from inside Congress and showing hundreds of protesters on multiple floors. “No one is taking our country, damn it.”

Eventually Brazilian Army soldiers helped retake control of some buildings.

Mr. Lula, who was not in Brasília during the invasion, issued an emergency decree until Jan. 31 that allows the federal government to take “any measures necessary” to restore order in the capital. “There is no precedent for what these people have done, and for that, these people must be punished,” he said.

The president, who arrived in the capital late in the day to inspect the damage, said that his government would also investigate anyone who may have financed the protests.

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Protesters inside the Planalto Palace, where Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was inaugurated a week ago. Credit...Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

Mr. Bolsonaro appeared to be in Florida. He flew to Orlando in the final days of his presidency, in hopes that his absence from the country would help cool off investigations into his activity as president, according to a friend of the president’s who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. He planned to stay in Florida for one to three months, this person said.

Mr. Bolsonaro has never unequivocally conceded defeat in the election, leaving it to his aides to handle the transition of power and skipping the inauguration, where he was supposed to pass the presidential sash to Mr. Lula, an important symbol of the transition of power for a country that lived under a 21-year military dictatorship until 1985.

After the election, he said he supported peaceful protests inspired by “feelings of injustice in the electoral process.”

But before departing for Florida, Mr. Bolsonaro suggested to his supporters that they move on. “We live in a democracy or we don’t,” he said in a recorded statement. “No one wants an adventure.”

His calls were ignored.

The next day, thousands of his supporters remained camped outside the Army headquarters in Brasília, with many convinced that the military and Mr. Bolsonaro were about to execute a secret plan to prevent Mr. Lula’s inauguration.

“The army will step in,” Magno Rodrigues, 60, a former mechanic and janitor, said in an interview on Dec. 31, the day before Mr. Lula took office. He had been camped outside the army’s headquarters for nine weeks and said he was prepared to stay “for the rest of my life if I have to.”

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One Bolsonaro supporter, Magno Rodrigues, camped out in front of army headquarters before Mr. Lula’s inauguration.Credit...Dado Galdieri for The New York Times

One of Mr. Lula’s central challenges as president will be to unify the nation after a bitter election in which some of his supporters framed Mr. Bolsonaro as genocidal and cannibalistic, while Mr. Bolsonaro repeatedly called Mr. Lula a criminal. (Mr. Lula served 19 months in prison on corruption charges that were later thrown out.)

Surveys have shown that a sizable chunk of the population say they believe Mr. Lula stole the election, fueled by false claims that have spread across the internet and a shift among many right-wing voters away from traditional sources of news — problems that have also plagued American politics in recent years.

President Biden, who was visiting the southern U.S. border, called the protests “outrageous,” and Jake Sullivan, his national security adviser, said the United States “condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil.”

“Our support for Brazil’s democratic institutions is unwavering,” Mr. Sullivan wrote on Twitter. “Brazil’s democracy will not be shaken by violence.”

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A protester kicking away a tear-gas canister on Sunday. Credit...Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

Some far-right provocateurs in the United States however, cheered on the attacks, posting videos of the riots and calling the protesters “patriots” who were trying to uphold the Brazilian Constitution. Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald J. Trump, called the protesters “Brazilian Freedom Fighters” in a social-media post. Mr. Bannon has had close ties with one of Mr. Bolsonaro’s sons.

At first, the rioters had a relatively easy time breaching the buildings. State police officers tried to hold them back, but they were far outnumbered. The demonstrations had been advertised widely on social media for days.

“It was scary, it was insanity,” said Adriana Reis, 30, a cleaner at Congress who witnessed the scene. “They tried hard, with pepper spray, to drive them off, but I don’t think the police could handle them all.” After protesters streamed in, “we ran away to hide,” she said.

Videos from inside Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential offices quickly filled social-media feeds and group chats, showing protesters wearing their national flag and trudging through the halls of power, not exactly sure what to do next.

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Offices inside the presidential palace were vandalized on Sunday.Credit...Adriano Machado/Reuters

They sat in the padded chairs of the Chamber of Deputies, rifled through paperwork in the presidential offices and posed with a golden coat of arms that appeared to be ripped from the wall of the Supreme Court’s chambers. Federal officials later distributed images and videos from the presidential offices that showed destroyed computers, art ripped from frames and firearm cases that had been emptied of their guns.

The protesters were ransacking buildings that have been hailed as gems of Modernist architecture. Designed by the celebrated Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in the 1950s, the Supreme Court, for instance, features columns of concrete clad in white marble that echo the fluttering of a sheet in the wind. And Congress is known for being capped with both a dome, under which the Senate is located, and a sort of bowl, under which the House is located.

Outside the presidential offices, they raised the flag of the Brazilian Empire, a period in the 19th century before Brazil became a democracy, and they sang Brazil’s national anthem. Videos of the rampage showed many protesters with phones aloft, filming the scene.

“There is no way to stop the people,” one protester declared as he live-streamed hundreds of protesters charging onto the roof of Congress. “Subscribe to my channel, guys.”

Several news outlets said their journalists were attacked and robbed during the rioting. And Ricardo Stuckert, Mr. Lula’s official photographer, had his passport and more than $95,000 worth of equipment stolen from a room in the presidential offices, according to his wife, Cristina Lino.

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Members of the Brazilian military face off against protesters inside the presidential offices on Sunday. Credit...Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

By late afternoon, military trucks had arrived.

Armed soldiers entered the presidential offices through a back door to ambush rioters inside. Shortly after, protesters began to stream out of the building, including some escorted by law enforcement officers.

By 9 p.m., more than seven hours after the invasions began, Brazil’s justice minister, Flávio Dino, said the buildings had been cleared. He said officials had arrested at least 200 people. The governor of Brasília said the number of arrests had exceeded 400.

Valdemar Costa Neto, the head of Mr. Bolsonaro’s right-wing Liberal Party, criticized the protesters.

“Today is a sad day for the Brazilian nation,” he said in a statement. “All orderly demonstrations are legitimate. Disorder has never been part of our nation’s principles.”

The Brazilian flag draped around many of the rioters on Sunday includes three words: “Order and progress.”

Reporting was contributed by Ana Ionova, Yan Boechat, Leonardo Coelho, Laís Martins and Gustavo Freitas.

Simon Romero
Jan. 8, 2023, 9:24 p.m. ET

Brasília is no stranger to protests. This time it is shaken to its core.

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Protesters in Brasília in June 2013.Credit...Evaristo Sa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Protesters scaling the roof of Congress. A rock-throwing mob shattering the windows of federal buildings. Fires threatening to engulf Brasília’s architectural treasures.

Such scenes left many Brazilians shocked on Sunday. But Brasília is no stranger to huge, sometimes destructive protests; similar displays of outrage marked the last time antigovernment demonstrators swept en masse into the capital a decade ago, in 2013.

This episode is on another scale, however, after supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, invaded and ransacked the iconic buildings housing the country’s three branches of government. The devastation left behind on Sunday made it clear that this event dwarfed other political demonstrations in Brazil’s recent history.

The Bolsonaro supporters damaged various works of art, including a canvas by the modernist painter Emiliano di Cavalcanti, a stained-glass installation by the French-Brazilian artist Marianne Peretti and a bust of Ruy Barbosa, an abolitionist statesman, according to Brazilian media reports. Demonstrators smashed windows and then tossed furniture and electronic equipment out of the presidential palace. Videos on social media appeared to show a protester about to defecate inside a room at the Supreme Court.

In 2013, authorities scrambled to understand what was happening. I covered those events at time, examining how small demonstrations over a proposed bus fare increase sparked a much larger, if diffuse, movement pulling together people from across the ideological spectrum to voice outrage over corruption and appalling public services.

This time around the protesters were far more directed in their fury, taking aim squarely at Brazil’s democratic institutions. Many of them called explicitly for the armed forces to seize control of the government and reinstall Mr. Bolsonaro, who lost the presidential election more than two months ago but has refused to concede to his opponent, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Harrowing accounts by witnesses point to scenes of mayhem. A photographer for the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, who was beaten on Sunday by the mob and had his equipment stolen, said that some rioters dislodged the stones used to assemble the sidewalk in front of the government buildings to use as weapons.

The photographer, Pedro Lareira, described the chaos in comments for his own newspaper. “While they assaulted me,” he said, “they said they were there to take Brazil.”

Where Rioters Have Stormed Government Buildings

By Scott Reinhard

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Yan Boechat
Jan. 8, 2023, 8:46 p.m. ET

At least eight journalists were attacked or robbed by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday, according to the Union of Professional Journalists of the Federal District, where the Brasília is located. Photojournalists from Brazilian newspapers and international agencies were the main victims. At least five had their equipment broken or stolen. A New Yorker magazine reporter was assaulted while covering the riot. Pedro Ladeira, a photographer for Folha de São Paulo, Brazil’s largest newspaper, was also attacked. “They destroyed my equipment; they beat me, but I’m fine,” he said.

André Spigariol
Jan. 8, 2023, 8:40 p.m. ET

Reporting from Brasília

President Lula arrived at the crime scene around 10 p.m. local time, accompanied by some of his top ministers. The president was seen inspecting the main entrance hall of the presidential offices, alongside federal police officials. Army soldiers remained stationed outside and around the building. Authorities escorted reporters away from the ground floor, where chairs were scattered all over.

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Credit...Eraldo Peres/Associated Press
Chris Cameron
Jan. 8, 2023, 8:26 p.m. ET

The attack on Brazil’s seat of government resembles the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Supporters of U.S. President Donald J. Trump gathered outside the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.Credit...Leah Millis/Reuters
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Supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro outside Brazil’s National Congress in Brasília on January 8, 2023.Credit...Adriano Machado/Reuters

Follow our latest updates on Brazil’s anti-democracy riots.

A defeated president claims, falsely, that an election was rigged. After months of baseless claims of fraud, an angry mob of his supporters storms Congress. They overwhelm police and vandalize the seat of national government, threatening the country’s democratic institutions.

Similarities between Sunday’s mob violence in Brazil and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are self-evident: Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing former president of Brazil, had for months sought to undermine the results of an election that he lost, in much the same manner that Donald J. Trump did after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Trump allies who had helped spread falsehoods about the 2020 election have turned to sowing doubt in the results of Brazil’s presidential election in October.

Those efforts by Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies have now culminated in an attempt — however implausible — to overturn the results of Brazil’s election and restore the former president to power. In much the same manner as Jan. 6, the mob that descended on the Brazilian capital overpowered police at the perimeter of the building that houses Congress and swept into the halls of power — breaking windows, taking valuable items and posing for photos in abandoned legislative chambers.

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A Trump supporter inside the office of Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the House, on Jan. 6, 2021.Credit...Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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Supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro rifle through papers on a desk in the Planalto Palace in Brasília on Sunday.Credit...Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

The two attacks do not align completely. The Jan. 6 mob was trying to stop the official certification of the results of the 2020 election, a final, ceremonial step taken before the new president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., was inaugurated on Jan. 20.

But Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the new president of Brazil, was sworn into office more than a week ago. The results of the presidential election have been certified by the country’s electoral court, not its legislature. There was no official proceeding to disrupt on Sunday, and the Brazilian Congress was not in session.

The mob violence on Jan. 6, 2021, “went right to the heart of the changing government,” and the attack in Brazil is not “as heavily weighted with that kind of symbolism,” said Carl Tobias, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Richmond.

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Pro-Trump protesters storming the Capitol in 2021.Credit...Will Oliver/EPA, via Shutterstock
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Pro-Bolsonaro protesters storming the Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasília in 2023.Credit...Sergio Lima/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

And Mr. Bolsonaro, who has had strong ties with Mr. Trump throughout their years in office, was nowhere near the capital, having taken up residence in Orlando, Fla., about 150 miles from Mr. Trump’s estate at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.

Nevertheless, the riot in Brasília drew widespread condemnation, including from U.S. lawmakers, with many Democrats drawing comparisons between it and the storming of the U.S. Capitol.

“Democracies of the world must act fast to make clear there will be no support for right-wing insurrectionists storming the Brazilian Congress,” Representative Jamie Raskin wrote on Twitter. “These fascists modeling themselves after Trump’s Jan. 6 rioters must end up in the same place: prison.”

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The Capitol Rotunda after a pro-Trump mob stormed the building on Jan. 6.Credit...Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
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The National Congress building in Brasília after pro-Bolsonaro protesters stormed the building on Sunday.Credit...Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

Representative George Santos, a Republican from New York under criminal investigation by Brazilian authorities, appeared to be one of the first elected officials from his party to condemn the mob violence in a post on Twitter on Sunday, but he did not draw a connection to Jan. 6.

Many of the lawmakers who condemned the violence had lived through the attack on the Capitol that occurred just over two years ago. Mr. Raskin was the lead impeachment manager in Mr. Trump’s second impeachment trial over his role in inciting the mob.

In a final echo of the Jan. 6 attack on Sunday, hours after the riot in Brazil began, Mr. Bolsonaro posted a message on social media calling for peace, much the way Mr. Trump did. Authorities had already announced they had the situation under control.

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Jack Nicas
Jan. 8, 2023, 7:39 p.m. ET

Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, criticized the protests, saying on Twitter that peaceful demonstrations were part of democracy, but “destruction and invasions of public buildings, like what occurred today,” were not. He also repudiated President Lula’s comments that Mr. Bolsonaro bore some responsibility for the riots, saying those accusations were “without proof.”

Jack NicasCarly Olson
Jan. 8, 2023, 7:09 p.m. ET

Who is Jair Bolsonaro?

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Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro in Brasília in October last year.Credit...Dado Galdieri for The New York Times

Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right populist who served as president of Brazil until he was unseated by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in October, upended political norms when he was elected in 2018.

Mr. Bolsonaro’s broadsides against women, gay people, Brazilians of color and even democracy — “Let’s go straight to the dictatorship,” he once said — made him so polarizing that he initially struggled to find a running mate.

But his campaign, full of angry tirades against corruption and violence that largely matched the national mood, appealed to the millions who voted him into power. While his rivals were more conventional, Mr. Bolsonaro, now 67, channeled the wrath and exasperation many Brazilians felt over rising crime and unemployment — problems that they increasingly believed the corrupt governing class was powerless to tackle.

His incendiary remarks over the years and throughout the campaign cast him as a political disrupter, similar to Donald J. Trump in the United States.

Throughout his presidency, Mr. Bolsonaro, who served in the military before entering politics, methodically questioned and criticized the security of Brazil’s electronic voting system, despite the lack of credible evidence of a problem, and attacked mainstream news outlets as dishonest.

Since Brazil began using electronic voting machines in 1996, there has been no evidence that they have been used for fraud. Instead, the machines helped eliminate the fraud that once afflicted Brazil’s elections in the age of paper ballots.

But those facts have not mattered much to Mr. Bolsonaro or his supporters, who have instead focused their attention on a series of anecdotal apparent abnormalities in the voting process and results, as well as many conspiracy theories.

Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Bolsonaro spent much of his time in office warning that the establishment was plotting against him. Mr. Trump railed against the “deep state,” while Mr. Bolsonaro accused some of the judges who oversee Brazil’s Supreme Court and the country’s electoral court of trying to rig the election.

By the end of Mr. Bolsonaro’s term, it was clear that his attacks had had an effect: Much of Brazil’s electorate seemed to have lost faith in the integrity of the nation’s elections.

Ernesto Londoño and Manuela Andreoni contributed reporting.

Ana Ionova
Jan. 8, 2023, 7:00 p.m. ET

Brazil’s justice minister, Flávio Dino, said the authorities had cleared the country’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices of rioters, who invaded the buildings earlier on Sunday. The authorities have arrested about 200 people in relation to the attacks, Dino said in a live address. He added that the authorities had identified about 40 buses that brought rioters to Brasília and that the financial backers of the trips would be tracked down and held responsible.

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André Spigariol
Jan. 8, 2023, 6:50 p.m. ET

Reporting from Brasília

The military police have retaken control of Three Powers Square in Brasília, the site of the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court buildings, the authorities said. After a series of arrests, rioters massed in front of the Justice Ministry, where police shot tear gas canisters from helicopters to disperse the crowd.

André Spigariol
Jan. 8, 2023, 6:53 p.m. ET

Reporting from Brasília

Law enforcement officials removed rioters from Congress’s lower house, a spokeswoman for Speaker Arthur Lira confirmed on Sunday evening. The extremists, however, left behind a scene of destruction at the Green Lounge, the House’s main room leading to its floor, according to a video released by Congressman Marcelo Ramos, a former House deputy speaker.

Ana Ionova
Jan. 8, 2023, 6:42 p.m. ET

The police have arrested at least 170 people linked to the attacks on Brazil’s capital, a civil police spokesperson said in a statement. The authorities are investigating reports of rioters attacking journalists, smashing windows of ministry buildings and carrying bladed weapons. In one incident being investigated, explosives may have been placed in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress.

Cassandra Vinograd
Jan. 8, 2023, 6:35 p.m. ET

President Biden expressed his support for Brazil and Mr. Lula.

The New York Times
Jan. 8, 2023, 6:11 p.m. ET

The rioters protesting the election are also trashing an architectural gem.

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The Oscar Niemeyer-designed National Congress in Brasília.Credit...Seth Kugel for The New York Times

The rioters who stormed Brazil’s Congress and presidential offices on Sunday were protesting the outcome of the recent presidential election — and trashing an architectural gem in the process.

Oscar Niemeyer, the celebrated Brazilian architect, designed the government buildings of Brasília — a sprawling new capital carved out of the savanna that became an emblem of Latin America’s leap into modernity. His curvaceous and lyrical forms helped shape a distinct national architecture and a modern identity for Brazil that broke with its colonial and baroque past.

Located hundreds of miles inland, Brasília was erected in just three and a half years at an exorbitant cost (estimates put it at the tens of billions in today’s dollars), replacing Rio de Janeiro as the country’s capital in 1960.

In his designs for the city, Mr. Niemeyer got the opportunity to create his own poetic vision of the future on a monumental scale. The city’s cross-shaped master plan, with rows of housing set around a formal administrative center, was designed by Lucio Costa, Mr. Niemeyer’s mentor. But it was Mr. Niemeyer who gave Brasília its sculptural identity.

The Supreme Court building, for instance, features columns of concrete clad in white marble that echo the fluttering of a sheet in the wind.

The National Congress building is surrounded by immaculate lawns, its form sunken slightly into the ground. A long, narrow ramp leads to a roof, where the public can stroll around the base of the bowllike form of the Chamber of Deputies.

The speed with which the city was created, between 1956 and 1960, reinforced its image as a utopian dream that had sprouted magically out of a primitive landscape. Its crisp, abstract forms seemed to sum up the aspirations of much of the developing world: the belief that modern architecture and the faith in technological progress that it embodied could help create a more egalitarian society.

On Sunday, thousands of protesters ascended the ramp to the roof of the Congress building while a smaller group invaded the building from a lower level, according to witnesses and videos of the scene posted on social media. Some of those videos showed rioters tearing through the Niemeyer-designed buildings, smashing the windows of the Supreme Court and of the president’s Planalto Palace.

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The New York Times
Jan. 8, 2023, 6:00 p.m. ET

Governments around the world condemned the protests in Brazil.

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Supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrate against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Brasilia on Sunday.Credit...Adriano Machado/Reuters

Governments in Latin America and beyond were swift to condemn the unrest in Brazil’s capital on Sunday.

President Biden, who was visiting the southern U.S. border, called the protests “outrageous” while Jake Sullivan, his national security adviser, said the United States “condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil.”

“Our support for Brazil’s democratic institutions is unwavering,” Mr. Sullivan wrote on Twitter. “Brazil’s democracy will not be shaken by violence.”

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken echoed that sentiment and pledged support for Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office on Jan. 1. “Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable,” he said.

Latin American leaders also condemned the protests as undemocratic. The leaders of two neighboring nations, Argentina and Uruguay, assailed the demonstrations.

President Alberto Fernandez of Argentina wrote on Twitter: “Democracy is the only political system that guarantees freedoms and obliges us to respect the popular verdict.” In Uruguay, President Luis Lacalle Pou tweeted: “We regret and condemn the actions carried out in Brazil that threaten democracy and institutions.”

And Gabriel Boric Font, the president of Chile, vowed: “The Brazilian government has our full support in the face of this cowardly and vile attack on democracy.”

European leaders also backed Mr. Lula. President Emmanuel Macron of France said that “the will of the Brazilian people and democratic institutions must be respected.” Writing on Twitter, Mr. Macron said that Mr. Lula could count on France’s “unfailing support.”

And Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister of Spain, said he supported Mr. Lula, writing on Twitter, “We strongly condemn the assault on the Brazilian Congress and call for an immediate return to democratic normality.”

Michael D. Shear
Jan. 8, 2023, 5:56 p.m. ET

When asked about the riots in Brasília, President Biden, who was visiting the southern U.S. border, said “it’s outrageous.”

Ron DePasquale
Jan. 8, 2023, 5:35 p.m. ET

Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court justice who is also Brazil’s elections chief, tweeted that the justice system would not fail Brazil: “The despicable terrorist attacks on Democracy and Republican Institutions will be held accountable, as well as the financiers, instigators, previous and current public agents who continue in the unlawful conduct of antidemocratic acts. The Judiciary will not fail Brazil!”

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Cassandra Vinograd
Jan. 8, 2023, 5:24 p.m. ET

Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas expressed support for Mr. Lula, tweeting that “domestic terrorists and fascists cannot be allowed to use Trump’s playbook to undermine democracy.”

Carly Olson
Jan. 8, 2023, 5:13 p.m. ET

“We condemn the attacks on Brazil’s Presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court today,” tweeted the U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, pledging support for Mr. Lula. “Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable.”

Ana Ionova
Jan. 8, 2023, 5:12 p.m. ET

The police have arrested 150 people in relation to the attacks on Brasília on Sunday afternoon, according to local authorities.

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Laís Martins
Jan. 8, 2023, 5:01 p.m. ET

The attorney general’s office has asked the Supreme Court of Brazil to order the arrest of the former public security secretary of the Federal District, who is also the former justice minister, Anderson Torres. The petition also asks for the arrest of other authorities involved.

Laís Martins
Jan. 8, 2023, 5:09 p.m. ET

The attorney general’s office has also asked the Supreme Court of Brazil to order social media platforms to identify and remove content that was promoting the riots in Brasília. It also requests that platforms demonetize profiles and pages that have been livestreaming the riots and that the companies store the data for 180 days so participants can be identified.

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Yan Boechat
Jan. 8, 2023, 4:47 p.m. ET

Tarcisio de Freitas, governor of São Paulo and former infrastructure minister under Jair Bolsonaro, in a tweet denounced the violence and called for a civil debate.

Aurelien Breeden
Jan. 8, 2023, 4:44 p.m. ET

Reacting to the storming of government buildings in Brazil, President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Sunday that “the will of the Brazilian people and democratic institutions must be respected.” Writing on Twitter, Mr. Macron said that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could count on France’s “unfailing support.”

Michael D. Shear
Jan. 8, 2023, 4:29 p.m. ET

Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser, tweeted: “The United States condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil. President Biden is following the situation closely and our support for Brazil’s democratic institutions is unwavering. Brazil’s democracy will not be shaken by violence.”

Ana Ionova
Jan. 8, 2023, 4:17 p.m. ET

In a live address, Mr. Lula said he was returning to Brasília to see the damage done by rioters. He said Mr. Bolsonaro’s discourse “stimulated” the attacks on the capital by questioning the integrity of institutions and the electoral process, and he vowed that those responsible for the attacks would be found, investigated and punished.

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Ana IonovaCarly Olson
Jan. 8, 2023, 4:12 p.m. ET

Ana Ionova and

Here’s what to know about Brazil’s presidential election.

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Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s capital last month.Credit...Dado Galdieri for The New York Times

Brazilians headed to the polls in October to elect a new president in a bruising runoff between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the future of Latin America’s biggest democracy.

The vote came after a long and ugly campaign that pitted the right-wing incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, against the two-term former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Mr. Bolsonaro rallied supporters around what he called a leftist attack on family values and individual liberties. He cast academics, the media and even democratic institutions, including Brazil’s Congress and Supreme Court, as enemies.

Mr. Lula, who ultimately won the election, vowed to govern for all Brazilians, while returning the country to a more prosperous past, though his history of corruption scandals divided voters.

Much of the campaign, which was marked by misinformation and vicious online attacks, devolved into mudslinging with little discussion of the challenges the country’s next leader would face.

What were the issues?

The election came at a crucial moment for Brazil, where surging food and fuel prices, coupled with a painful economic slowdown, have caused poverty to surge, reversing decades of social and economic progress.

Environmental and climate worries also loomed large. Deforestation in the Amazon hit 15-year highs under Mr. Bolsonaro, who weakened environmental protections and argued that the rainforest should be opened to mining, ranching and agriculture. The Amazon’s destruction — and its effects on the efforts to avert a climate crisis — has turned Brazil into a global outcast.

There were also concerns about the health of Brazil’s democracy. Mr. Bolsonaro sowed doubts about the integrity of the electoral system, claiming without evidence that the country’s electronic voting machines could be rigged. His efforts fueled worries at home and abroad that a potential loss for Mr. Bolsonaro would prompt him to rally his millions of supporters to take to the streets and demand that he remain in power.

What did Mr. Lula propose?

Mr. Lula oversaw an era of growth during his two terms in office, when a commodity-fueled boom turned Brazil into a global success story. He promised to return the country to those glory days.

The leftist candidate vowed to raise taxes on the rich and boost public spending, “putting the people in the budget.” His plans include a slew of social programs, such as a $113 monthly cash voucher rivaling the one proposed by Mr. Bolsonaro. Poor families with children will also receive an additional $28 per month for each child under 6.

Mr. Lula also promised to adjust Brazil’s minimum wage in step with inflation and revive a housing plan for the poor, while guaranteeing food security for people facing hunger.

A former trade unionist, Mr. Lula planned to kick-start growth and “create work and employment opportunities” by spending on infrastructure. But he also planned to invest in a “green economy,” warning that Brazil must shift to more sustainable energy and food systems.

On the Amazon, Mr. Lula has signaled that he will crack down on environmental crimes by militias, land grabbers, loggers and others.

What did Mr. Bolsonaro propose?

Mr. Bolsonaro promised to hand out cash payments of about $113 a month to needy families, extending a temporary policy originally created to ease the pandemic’s blow. The plan was designed to “reduce poverty and contribute to sustainable economic growth,” according to Mr. Bolsonaro’s official policy plan.

Ahead of the election, Mr. Bolsonaro spent heavily on welfare and fuel subsidies.

He also pledged to create jobs by eliminating bureaucratic red tape, slashing taxes and investing in technology. In a further nod to business leaders, who provided him vital support during his first run for president, Mr. Bolsonaro said he would maintain a free market approach and keep public debt in check.

Echoing the rhetoric that won him support from ultraconservative and evangelical voters four years ago, Mr. Bolsonaro also promised to defend “the family,” opposing legal abortion and transgender education in schools.

Mr. Bolsonaro also promised to expand tough-on-crime policies, pledging to further expand access to firearms, a policy he credits for a drop in violent crime across Brazil.

How did Mr. Bolsonaro sow doubts about the election’s legitimacy?

Brazilians cast ballots on electronic voting machines, a system that has been in place for more than two decades and that has been the focus of Mr. Bolsonaro’s claims about the risk of election fraud.

Mr. Bolsonaro has framed a hack of Brazil’s election agency in 2018 as evidence of fraud, although an investigation showed that the hackers were not able to change vote totals or access voting machines.

Mr. Bolsonaro has also pointed to Mr. Lula’s past corruption charges, which were nullified, as proof that he was a thief planning to steal the vote.

Flawed polls also raised questions about the credibility of polling firms and gave credence to Mr. Bolsonaro’s claims that the surveys did not accurately reflect his popularity. In the first round of voting, Mr. Lula won 48 percent of the vote, while Mr. Bolsonaro received 43 percent, significantly outperforming pre-election polls.

Laís Martins
Jan. 8, 2023, 4:11 p.m. ET

Pictures on social media show Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of Congress) flooded after protesters set the carpet on fire. A CNN reporter on the scene also said that gifts from foreign dignitaries to Congress were taken by protesters.

Ana Ionova
Jan. 8, 2023, 4:04 p.m. ET

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced he would sign an emergency decree allowing the federal government to intervene and implement “any measures necessary” to bring order to the capital. The decree will remain in effect until Jan. 31.

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Leonardo Coelho
Jan. 8, 2023, 4:02 p.m. ET

The chief executive of the Metropoles media group tweeted that a photojournalist of the outlet was attacked.

André Spigariol
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:52 p.m. ET

Reporting from Brasília

“Today is a sad day for the Brazilian nation,” said Valdemar Costa Neto, the head of Mr. Bolsanaro’s right-wing Liberal Party, in a statement. “We cannot agree with the plundering of the national Congress. All orderly demonstrations are legitimate. Disorder has never been part of our nation’s principles. I want to tell you that we vehemently disapprove of this type of attitude and let the law be enforced, strengthening our democracy.”

The New York Times
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:42 p.m. ET

Here’s a look at the election that set the stage for the violent protest.

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Videos shared on social media showed supporters of Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, storming the National Congress in Brasília. The protest comes two months after Mr. Bolsonaro lost his re-election bid.CreditCredit...Evaristo Sa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Brazilian voters ousted President Jair Bolsonaro after just a single tumultuous term on Oct. 30 and returned the leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to replace him.

It was a rebuke to Mr. Bolsonaro’s far-right movement and to his divisive four years in office — and some of his supporters did not take defeat quietly.

In the hours after the race was called, far-right lawmakers, conservative pundits and many of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters recognized Mr. Lula’s victory. But truckers in the heart of Brazil’s central farming region started fires and tried to block a main highway important for the agriculture industry.

Mr. Lula called for unity.

“I will govern for 215 million Brazilians, and not just for those who voted for me,” he declared in his victory speech. “There are not two Brazils. We are one country, one people, one great nation.”

It was a stunning political revival — from the presidency to prison and back — and it had once seemed unthinkable. Mr. Lula, 77, a former metalworker and union leader with a fifth-grade education, led Brazil during its boom in the first decade of the century, leaving office with an 80 percent approval rating.

But in the October election, he won with the narrowest of margins.

Mr. Lula drew 50.90 percent of the vote, versus Mr. Bolsonaro’s 49.10 percent, and in the days and weeks that followed the vote, many Bolsonaro supporters came to believe — against all the evidence — that the election had been stolen.

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André Spigariol
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:39 p.m. ET

Reporting from Brasília

Protesters fly the flag of the Empire of Brazil above the presidential palace.

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Credit...André Spigariol for The New York Times
Jack Nicas
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:36 p.m. ET

Protesters are wandering around the smoke-filled presidential offices, a building that was the site of the presidential inauguration just one week ago. Video posted to social media shows men, some wearing Brazilian flags as capes, walking into empty offices where tables and chairs had been overturned.

Leonardo Coelho
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:33 p.m. ET

Protesters are seen destroying windows inside the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil.

André Spigariol
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:30 p.m. ET

Reporting from Brasília

Dozens of Brazilian Army soldiers entered the presidential offices within the past 30 minutes. Two helicopters are hovering over the presidential offices. Officers in the helicopters are firing what appear to be anti-riot ammunition and tear gas canisters. A large group of protesters is now heading away from the presidential offices and toward the back entry to Congress.

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CreditCredit...André Spigariol for The New York Times

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Jack NicasFlávia Milhorance
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:29 p.m. ET

Jack Nicas and

Who is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva?

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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in São Paulo in 2021. He was inaugurated on Jan. 1 as president of Brazil.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

RIO DE JANEIRO — In 2019, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was spending 23 hours a day in an isolated cell equipped with a treadmill in a federal penitentiary.

The former president of Brazil had been sentenced to 22 years on corruption charges, a conviction that appeared to end the storied career of the man who had once been the lion of the Latin American left.

Now, freed from prison, Mr. Lula is Brazil’s president once again, a political resurrection that had once seemed unthinkable.

Mr. Lula, 76, a zealous leftist whose corruption convictions were set aside after Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that the judge in his cases was biased, defeated President Jair Bolsonaro, 67, the right-wing nationalist incumbent, and was inaugurated on Jan. 1.

The victory completed a remarkable journey for Mr. Lula, whom former President Barack Obama once called “the most popular politician on Earth.”

When he left office in 2011 after two terms, Mr. Lula’s approval rating topped 80 percent. But he then became the centerpiece of a sprawling investigation into government bribes that led to nearly 300 arrests, landing him in prison.

Today, the former union leader is back at the helm of Latin America’s largest nation, at 217 million people, with a mandate to undo Mr. Bolsonaro’s legacy.

“How did they try to destroy Lula? I spent 580 days in jail because they didn’t want me to run,” Mr. Lula told a crowd of supporters during his campaign, his famously gravelly voice even hoarser with age. “And I stayed calm there, preparing myself like Mandela prepared for 27 years.”

Mr. Lula’s return to the president’s office cemented his status as the most influential figure in Brazil’s modern democracy. A former metalworker with a fifth-grade education and the son of illiterate farm workers, he has been a political force for decades, leading a transformational shift in Brazilian politics away from conservative principles and toward leftist ideals and working-class interests.

The leftist Workers’ Party he co-founded in 1980 has won four of the eight presidential elections since the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1988.

As president from 2003 through 2010, Mr. Lula’s administration helped lift 20 million Brazilians out of poverty, revitalized the nation’s oil industry and elevated Brazil on the world stage, including by hosting the World Cup and Summer Olympics.

But it also allowed a vast kickback scheme to fester throughout the government, with many of his Workers’ Party allies convicted of accepting bribes. While the courts threw out Mr. Lula’s two convictions of accepting a condo and renovations from construction companies bidding on government contracts, they did not affirm his innocence.

Mr. Lula has long maintained that the charges were false.

Jack Nicas
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:15 p.m. ET

Bolsonaro has been holed up thousands of miles away in Florida.

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Former President Jair Bolsonaro has been staying in Orlando, Fla. Last week, supporters held a rally for him there.Credit...Skyler Swisher/Orlando Sentinel, via Associated Press

Follow our latest updates on Brazil’s anti-democracy riots.

When his supporters stormed Brazil’s Congress and presidential offices on Sunday to protest what they falsely claim was a stolen election, Jair Bolsonaro was believed to be thousands of miles away.

Facing various investigations from his time in office, Mr. Bolsonaro flew to Florida in late December with plans to stay for at least a month. He has been in Orlando, living in a rented house owned by a professional mixed-martial-arts fighter a few miles from Disney World.

Mr. Bolsonaro has long questioned the reliability of Brazil’s election systems — without evidence — and he refused to concede unequivocally when he lost in October to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office on Jan. 1.

Yet before departing for Florida in the final days of his presidency, Mr. Bolsonaro called on his supporters to avoid violence and suggested that they move on.

“We live in a democracy or we don’t,” he said in a recorded statement. “No one wants an adventure.”

Sunday evening, the former president criticized the protests, saying on Twitter that peaceful demonstrations were part of democracy, but “destruction and invasions of public buildings, like what occurred today,” were not. He also repudiated President Lula’s comments that Mr. Bolsonaro bore some responsibility for the riots, saying those accusations were “without proof.”

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Yan Boechat
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:14 p.m. ET

Pedro Ladeira, a photographer with the large Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, said in an interview that he was robbed and attacked while covering the protests on Sunday. All his equipment was taken by protesters, he said.

Jack Nicas
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:13 p.m. ET

The protests have started to become more violent. Video posted to social media showed a crowd of protesters using sticks or poles to strike a police officer on horseback, pulling him off his horse near the presidential offices.

Yan Boechat
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:09 p.m. ET

Security in the area had been the responsibility of Anderson Torres, security secretary of the Federal District. Torres, a staunch ally of Jair Bolsonaro, had just been fired by Ibaneis Rocha, the governor of the Federal District. Torres was Jair Bolsonaro’s minister of justice from March 2021 until the end of his term.

André Spigariol
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:07 p.m. ET

Reporting from Brasília

Dozens of protesters streamed into the presidential offices, with some using a barricade to hold back the police and clear the way for more protesters to enter. Inside the building, the protesters could be seen attempting to build more barricades with chairs.

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Credit...Andre Borges/EPA, via Shutterstock

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Jack Nicas
Jan. 8, 2023, 3:01 p.m. ET

Rodrigo Pacheco, the president of Brazil’s Senate, said in a statement that he had spoken with the governor of Brasília, who told him that the entire state’s police force had been directed “to control the situation.” “I’m vehemently against these antidemocratic actions, which should be punished according to law urgently,” he said.

Jack Nicas
Jan. 8, 2023, 2:58 p.m. ET

On a livestream, one protester narrated the scene as other demonstrators stormed Congress. “This is a historic moment,” he said. This is “the invasion — the invasion, no, the occupation — of the National Congress.” He then added another message for viewers: “Give a like and subscribe to my channel, guys.”

Russell Goldman
Jan. 8, 2023, 2:53 p.m. ET

“The National Congress will not tolerate these attacks on democracy! Let’s be firm and investigate those responsible for the events of Jan. 8. Each of them must be punished,” Jean Paul Prates, a Brazilian senator and member of Mr. Lula’s Workers’ Party wrote in a tweet.

Russell Goldman
Jan. 8, 2023, 2:56 p.m. ET

“Every one of them must be prosecuted and arrested! There will be no tolerance,” tweeted Jean Paul Prates, a Brazilian senator and member of Mr. Lula’s Workers’ Party, who described the protesters as “terrorists.”

Jack Nicas
Jan. 8, 2023, 2:50 p.m. ET

Supporters of Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, have stormed Brazil’s Congress and presidential offices to protest what they falsely believe was a stolen election.

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Jan. 8, 2023, 2:47 p.m. ET

Jack NicasFlávia Milhorance and

How Bolsonaro built the myth of stolen elections in Brazil.

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President Jair Bolsonaro has spent years undermining Brazil’s voting systems. Now the nation is bracing for his reaction if he loses Sunday’s election.

Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has attacked the country’s election systems for years.

One of his claims has been that apparent patterns in vote results show proof of fraud. He has repeatedly said that election officials count votes in secret, suggesting they could manipulate results. And he has said that he suspected hackers tried to steal the presidential election from him in 2018, but failed.

Those claims are false, according to Brazil’s election officials, fact-checking agencies and independent election-security experts who have studied the country’s electronic voting system. Yet in speeches, interviews and hundreds of posts on social media, Mr. Bolsonaro has consistently and methodically repeated those baseless claims and many others about Brazil’s voting system.

The result has been a yearslong campaign that has undermined millions of Brazilians’ faith in the elections that underpin one of the world’s largest democracies.

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