Bad Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonarohe held mass protests this Wednesday to demand the intervention of the armed forces after the elections Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvaa move that military experts say is out of the question.
The state electoral body announced this on Sunday Lula won almost 51 percent of the vote. Bolsonaro has not officially recognized the result, although his cabinet has begun a transition in which Lula will assume the presidency on January 1.
Bolsonaro’s supporters led protests on Wednesday in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, carrying the yellow-green flag of Brazil on his shouldershonking and chanting slogans against Lula.
“We hope that the army will intervene in this situation, we know that those elections were fakeReinaldo da Silva, 65, a retired civil servant, said at a protest outside a military barracks in Sao Paulo.
Similar demonstrations were held in barracks in a total of nine states and the capital Brasilia, reports the Brazilian portal UOL. The Ministry of Defense of Brazil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has cultivated strong ties to the military since his election in 2018, earning political sympathy from some of the country’s top leaders.
Former presidential spokesman General Otavio Rego Barros said in a column published Wednesday that it is time to “lay down your arms” and criticized “groups without a sense of responsibility who still seek to destabilize the weakened social fabric with provocations and misinformation.”
Paulo Chagas, a retired cavalry general who campaigned for Bolsonaro, said in an email to Reuters: “The military knows very well what their duty is: The constitution does not allow them to interfere in politics“.
Political leaders from around the world congratulated Lula on his victory and the White House said he won in a “free, fair and credible election.”
Truck drivers, many of whom support the president, blocked highways across the country on Monday and Tuesday to protest the results, creating kilometers of traffic and threatening to disrupt supply chains.
