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Brazilian Authorities Arrested the Rioters. Now They Are Arresting Security Officials.
With more than 700 people arrested after supporters of Jair Bolsonaro ransacked Brazil’s seats of government, the authorities began to search for those who funded and aided the rioters.
BRASÍLIA — Brazilian authorities on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two government security officials, zeroed in on people suspected of funding this week’s violent protests and asked a federal court to freeze the assets of the far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro, a broad expansion of the investigation into
the invasion of Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices by protesters on Sunday.
The moves showed that, a day after arresting hundreds of people suspected of taking part in Sunday’s riot in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, the nation’s top officials have now turned their focus to the political and business elites suspected of inspiring, organizing or aiding the rioters.
Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, issued the warrants for the two security officials, including Anderson Torres, the man effectively in charge of security for the capital, in response to a request by the federal police.
Mr. Moraes, a controversial figure who has been accused of
severely overstepping his authority, said that investigators had evidence that the officials knew violence was brewing but did nothing to stop it. He said that they were under investigation for terrorism, criminal association and offenses related to the violent overthrow of democracy.
Separately on Tuesday, a top public prosecutor asked a federal court to freeze the assets of Mr. Bolsonaro in relation to the investigation into the riots, though his office declined to explain why.
The protesters invaded the government buildings
under the false belief that October’s presidential election, which Mr. Bolsonaro lost, was rigged, their actions spurred in part because of his
yearslong efforts to undermine the electorate’s faith in Brazil’s election systems.
The request to freeze Mr. Bolsonaro’s assets is now in the hands of a judge, but it is unclear whether the court has the legal power to block his accounts. And freezing assets, even if it were not challenged in court, could prove a lengthy and complex process.
Authorities are also expected to take action against more than 100 companies thought to have helped the protesters, including many believed to have transported rioters to the capital or to have provided them with free food and shelter, according to Brazilian media reports.
Brazil’s new justice minister, Flávio Dino, said government investigators had zeroed in on companies in at least 10 states that were suspected of having helped finance the riots. Authorities were seeking arrest warrants for “people who did not come to Brasília, but who participated in the crime, who are organizers, financiers,” Mr. Dino said on Tuesday.
Both Mr. Dino and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have said that they believe prominent players in the country’s powerful agriculture industry, which largely backed Mr. Bolsonaro in the election, played a role.
“These people were there today, the agribusiness,” Mr. Lula said after the attacks, adding that “all these people will be investigated, found out, and will be punished.”
The moves highlighted the growing scope of the hunt to identify the ideological, logistical and financial architects of Sunday’s chaos, the worst attack on Brazil’s institutions since a military dictatorship ended in 1985.
Many people who participated in the riots had been camped out for weeks outside the Army headquarters in Brasília, espousing the false claim that October’s election was stolen and calling for the military to step in. Military and independent experts found no credible evidence of voter fraud in the election, in which Mr. Lula, a leftist former president, defeated Mr. Bolsonaro. Mr. Lula took office on Jan. 1.
While Mr. Bolsonaro had for years asserted, without evidence, that Brazil’s election systems were plagued by fraud, after the election he authorized the transition of power to Mr. Lula. Mr. Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since before the inauguration, criticized the rioters on Sunday, saying that peaceful demonstrations were part of democracy but the “destruction and invasions of public buildings” was not.
In the wake of the riot, investigators are grappling with difficult questions about why rioters were able to enter federal government buildings so easily — and whether security authorities were blindsided, negligent or somehow complicit.
Some officials have been quick to place much of the blame on Mr. Torres, who served as Mr. Bolsonaro’s justice minister before becoming the security chief of the Federal District, a small province that includes Brasília, on Jan. 2. That position made him largely in charge of the security plans for the protest on Sunday.