UN General Secretary António Guterres condemns assault on Brazilian Congress

United Nations, January 9 (RHC)-- The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, strongly condemned on Sunday the assault on the Congress headquarters, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Presidential Palace in Brazil by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The highest representative of the UN, posted on his official Twitter account that "Brazil is a great democratic country" and that "the will of the Brazilian people and its democratic institutions must be respected."

In the afternoon hours of Sunday, mobs of Jair Bolsonaro supporters violently stormed the headquarters of Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace, destroying everything in their path and calling for public disobedience and a military coup.

Since the announcement of the victory of the Workers' Party (PT) candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the presidential elections of last October 30th, supporters of the defeated candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, began to violently show their disagreement.

The head of the United Nations thus added his voice to those of numerous political figures from around the world who joined in declaring their solidarity with the legitimate government of Brazil and the safeguarding of its institutionality.

From Brussels, Belgium, the high representative of the European Union, Joseph Borrell, condemned "in the strongest terms the anti-democratic acts of violence" occurred in the South American giant and called on Bolsonaro to fire his henchmen.

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola, also used her Twitter platform to stress that "democracy must always be respected": "The European Parliament stands by Lula da Silva's government and all legitimate and democratically elected institutions," she said.

From the United States, where a similar situation is still remembered when followers of former U.S. President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 challenging the victory of Democrat Joe Biden, messages of repudiation also arrived.

Both Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and President Biden himself stressed that "Brazilian democratic institutions have our full support and the will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined."