A group of activists protested Wednesday morning, May 2, in front of the Eastern Military Command (CML) in downtown Rio de Janeiro, demanding military intervention and the annulment of the presidential elections that elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT, left), as reported by the Superior Electoral Court TSE.
The group gathered in front of the Duque de Caxias Palace, the organizational headquarters of the armed forces in charge of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Espírito Santo.
The protesters arrived around 8 am with banners and placards for “military intervention” and Brazilian flags, occupying the square in front of the CML and part of Avenida Presidente Vargas, the city’s main thoroughfare.
The act is accompanied by officers of the City Guard and the Military Police.
“We have Article 142, but we know that it must first go through Congress to be put into practice. The other side will destroy us. We don’t want to become Venezuela. The military is helping us. All power comes from the people,” declared one of the active organizers.
The group protested in the pouring rain with shouts of “I authorize,” “Lula is a thief,” and sang military and religious hymns.
BOLSONARO URGED TO DISPERSE PROTESTS
The act was called a day after Jair Bolsonaro (PL, right), the republic’s president who is said to have lost in the second round of the election, commented on the election results.
Bolsonaro did not contest the election but did not concede defeat either. He said nothing and explained that the streets were filled with “a sense of outrage and injustice about how the electoral process went.”
“Peaceful demonstrations will always be welcome, but our methods cannot be those of the left, which have always harmed the population, such as the invasion of property, the destruction of cultural goods, and the curtailment of the right to come and go,” he explained.
According to the Federal Highway Police (PRF), there are still incidents in Acre, Amazonas, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Pernambuco, Paraná, Rondônia, Roraima, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, and Tocantins.