Broken glass, stones, the smell of smoke: the shock of returning to work in the buildings attacked in Brasilia

Floors stripped of their original stones, broken glass, furniture half submerged in water and a lingering smell of tear gas. The state of the Planalto Palace, seat of the Presidency in Brasilia, stormed by the Bolsonarists, seemed to be in ruins this Monday, when its employees returned to work.

“I cried,” an official confided as he returned to work in the building in outrage, a day after a massive and violent invasion of the facilities by followers of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Cleaning crews were sweeping and starting to pick up chairs and other furniture left in the courtyard, some of which protruded from the reflecting pool of the wide-open building, one of the icons of modernist architecture.

While, government employees were trying to regain some normalcy after the invasion of the headquarters of public powers in the Brazilian capital last Sunday, just a week after the center-left leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed command of the Latin American giant for the third time.

The protesters, who he called for military intervention to remove Lula from powerThey broke through the police barriers and managed to invade the Congress and the offices of the Presidency and the Supreme Court, located in the Plaza de los Tres Poderes, destroying much of what they found in their path.

Except for the presence of a few members of law enforcement, questioned about their actions during the assault, the heart of Brasilia, to which access was closed, seemed deserted on Monday morning.

destruction

Sunday’s incidents left graffitied facades and broken glass; inside public buildings, doors and windows were damaged and some offices vandalised.

In Planalto, protesters they ripped stones out of the ground to use as ammunition against the police and the stained glass windows on the facade of this jewel created by the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, in a city imagined by the urban planner Lucio Costa which has been registered by Unesco as a World Heritage Site.

Fire hydrants, chairs and other furniture such as a large carved wooden table were thrown into the open, along with the remains of bullets and tear gas used by the authorities to clear the overrun area.

A faint smell of gas it was evident in the surroundings, more than twelve hours after the accidents.

But the atmosphere was calm, with a handful of security guards guarding the doors, with no sign of the uniformed riot police who occupied the post Sunday night.

Inside the atrium, photographs of former Brazilian presidents lay on the floor torn and with their frames broken, the marble wall where they usually stand as silent witnesses to the protesters’ fury.

they still saw each other traces of blood in the ground floor offices, according to an official.

Lula’s office was saved

Access inside the seat of government has been limited due to the damage suffered by the X-ray machines. Lula and his ministers met with the leaders of the other public powers to evaluate what your greatest is in power in just a week crisis.

The presidential office was one of the few places that the Bolsonarists did not arrive, whose actions were described as “terrorist” in a joint communiqué by Lula with the heads of Congress and the federal Supreme Court.

Another nearby room had no such luck: A group of officials observed the damage done to the painting “Las Mulatas,” by Rio de Janeiro artist Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, pierced several times apparently with knives.

The presidential palace also houses more than a hundred paintings and sculptures, as well as furniture designed by Niemeyer himself.

“Virtually all of the artwork is damaged,” said an official who wished to remain anonymous.

At the Congressional headquarters, the mood was similar: shattered glass on the floor, dangling wires and broken furniture. The entrance door to the Senate has been broken down.

“It’s a tragedy,” Tiago Amaral, 34, who works in the office of Senator Jaques Wagner, a Lula ally, told AFP. “The destruction goes beyond damaging public property, it’s an attack on democracy,” he lamented.

Source: AFP

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