Two apparently politically motivated explosions occurred on Wednesday (Thursday morning in Spain) near Brazil’s Supreme Court. First, explosives placed inside a car parked on the street, next to a building attached to the Chamber of Deputies, exploded. Subsequently, a man detonated an explosive at the gate of the Supreme Court after failing to gain access inside the building and died.
The police confirmed the identity of the owner of the car, Francisco Wanderley Luiz, known as Tiu França, member of the Liberal Party (PL) of former ultra-president Jair Bolsonaro. However, it is unclear whether the owner of the vehicle is the suspected suicide bomber, who could not be identified since the police were unable to carry out a forensic examination of the body, which was mutilated by the explosion and always with explosives. in the body.
According to Brasilia Vice Governor Celina Leão, preliminary information indicates that the subject who committed the suicide attack was the same one who triggered the car explosion, but she said it cannot yet be confirmed that this is the owner of the vehicle.
After the explosions, central Brasilia was armored by police and the army, who searched the area for other possible devices. The Supreme Court suspended the session taking place at the time and the nearby Chamber of Deputies was evacuated approximately two hours later.
The federal police have resumed the investigation into this case and will carry out the investigations “with rigor and speed”, according to the Attorney General of Brazil, Jorge Messias, in a message on social networks. The Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, also spoke in the same direction and assured that the security forces “are ready to ensure the functioning of the established powers.”
The link with Bolsonaro
The person identified as the owner of the vehicle, Tiu França, was a candidate in the 2020 municipal elections in the municipality of Rio Sul, in the state of Santa Catarina, and hours before the attack he posted threats on his Facebook . page.
In these messages, now deleted by the platform, he claimed that the police had 72 hours to “disarm the bomb” which is in the house of several “communists”, among whom he cited three former Brazilian presidents and a famous journalist. Likewise, he posted a series of emoticons depicting coffins and bombs, and he called on the armed forces to start a “revolution.”
The Plaza de los Tres Poderes, where the seats of government, Parliament and the Supreme Court are located, was the scene of the attack of thousands of extremists who, on January 8, 2023, tried to incite a coup d’état against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. .
Gleisi Hoffmann, president of the Workers’ Party (PT), Lula’s party, declared that the “very serious” events of this Wednesday “repeat the scenario, the objectives and the violence of January 8.”
“The car with explosives in the Chamber of Deputies belongs to a candidate for councilor of the PL of Santa Catarina. Many elements encourage us to remain vigilant in the defense of democracy. We know who her enemies are and we will know once again how to defend her,” Hoffmann said on social media.
For the attack of January 8, 2023, nearly 1,600 people were indicted by the prosecution, including the executors, instigators and financiers of the attacks. Among them, 227 were sentenced by the Supreme Court as perpetrators of the attacks to sentences ranging from 3 to 17 years in prison, for crimes including attempted coup d’état and damage to public property.
