Sao Paulo, Brazil — In 1808, the king of Portugal, John VI, arrived on a visit to what was then colonial Brazil with a large, ornate pendulum clock, a gift from King Louis XIV of France.
That artefact has been in possession of the Brazilian state ever since, displayed in the Planalto presidential palace for the last 11 years.
But on January 8, surveillance cameras inside the Planalto palace captured a man throwing the priceless work of art to the floor, destroying it beyond repair.
That individual, one of hundreds of rioters who stormed the seat of government in the federal capital Brasília that day, was wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
Now, more than a week on, Brazil is still, quite literally, picking up the pieces. Investigations are under way into the perpetrators of the riot, who organised it and where the money came from.
The attack began when riled-up pro-Bolsonaro supporters forced their way past police cordons and into Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and Planalto palace, all located adjacent to one another.
They demanded a military coup d’etat to annul the results of the 2022 presidential election and reinstate the defeated Bolsonaro as president.
With the judiciary and legislature on holiday — and newly inaugurated left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva out of town — the buildings were largely empty. No casualties resulted from the attack.
The damage to public property, however, was unprecedented, as vandals tore through the buildings, breaking windows, destroying priceless works of art and daubing far-right slogans on walls.
Almost 1,400 people were arrested following the attack and remain in police custody. On Monday, federal prosecutors indicted 39 of them for crimes including armed conspiracy and attempted coup d’etat. Dozens of further indictments are expected.
Senators have promised an inquiry to find out who financed the riots.
“There is clearly a well-funded core of support for a right-wing political agenda,” said Andre Pagliarini, assistant professor of history at Hampden-Sydney College. “And it is willing to invest in anti-democratic organising, even in the wake of electoral defeat.”
Mario Sergio Lima, a senior Brazil analyst at the Medley Advisors consultancy, said he believed that the riots were largely bankrolled by “mid-level retail and agro magnates”, a constituency…