Brazil: Maximum security planned for the settlement of Lula

President-elect Lula’s safety will be ensured by a 100% mobilization of the police, his team assured on Tuesday, five days before his inauguration and after a attempted attack with explosives was discovered in the Brazilian capital. On Sunday, “the police force of the Federal District (of Brasilia) will be 100% mobilized to ensure the safety not only of the president, but also of the foreign delegations and the population,” Flavio Dino, his future minister of public security.

The plans for the ceremonies “have not been modified”, continued the minister, when asked about the possibility that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will come down from the esplanade of the Ministries in a closed car instead of the traditional convertible Rolls-Royce. The decision “will be made in due time,” Dino said during a press conference in the presence of the future defense minister and the governor of Brasilia, in charge of the local police.

The induction ceremony will take place in a “safe and peaceful” manner, Dino added, as Brasilia prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of people. Many supporters of the president-elect on the left have expressed fear of riots or attacks on social networks, especially after the discovery last Saturday of an explosive device in a tanker near Brasilia airport. Activated, the device did not explode. The man who had accompanied him was arrested and wanted, according to his statements to the police published in the local press, “to cause chaos” and “the intervention of the armed forces” to “prevent the establishment of communism in Brazil”. An impressive number of weapons have been found in this sympathizer of outgoing far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonarist radicals blocked roads and demonstrated outside barracks across the country after Lula’s narrow victory in the October 30 runoff. Two months later, there are still demonstrations, in front of certain barracks, by the Bolsonarist army who do not recognize Lula’s victory and are calling for military intervention. Dino assured that “small terrorist or extremist groups” would not be enough to undermine Brazilian democracy.

Bolsonaro, who never congratulated Lula and appears to have sunk into depression, has barely appeared in public since his presidential defeat. He did not condemn various incidents caused by his supporters. It’s unlikely he’ll wrap the presidential sash around Lula on 1^and January, as per institutional tradition. And the Brazilian media speculated on a possible departure on Wednesday of the outgoing president – officially in office until December 31st – for the United States.