Roughly 1,500 detainees were held for interrogation in a police gymnasium, where they slept on the ground, some wrapped in Brazilian flags, and complained to a Reuters journalist that they had been held indefinitely and in poor condition. Food was given. Videos posted on social media showed him singing the song and taking a selfie with his phone.
Opposition senator Marcos do Val, who condemned the Brasilia attack, told reporters outside a gym that many of those detained were “paying the price for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
By late afternoon, 527 had been arrested, while 599 detainees had been released, most of them elderly people, mothers with children or people with health problems, police said.
About 200 other protesters were under arrest and awaiting charges at a penal facility for their roles in Sunday’s rampage, which vandalized some of the capital’s most iconic buildings in the worst attack on Brazil’s democracy in decades.
Public prosecutors asked Moraes to order cellphone carriers and social media platforms to store information that could put users in areas of demonstrations on Sunday as authorities try to identify organizers and their financial sources.
‘nothing done’
The investigation could also spread outside Brasilia. Pro-Bolsonaro militants discussed on social media their plans to disrupt highways and oil refineries to cause economic chaos alongside their assault on the capital.
Brazilian energy company Eletrobras is investigating whether the collapse of two transmission towers was related to Sunday’s violence in Brasilia, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.
Eletrobras did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Its subsidiary Eletronorte issued a statement on Monday about a fallen tower connecting rural communities in northern Brazil to the central grid with “signs of sabotage”.
Financial markets largely shut down in a failed attempt to disrupt the democratic transfer of power in Latin America’s largest economy, with the Bovespa stock index up. BVSP rebounded 1.5% on Tuesday and Brazil’s currency, the real BRBY, rebounded nearly 1% against the US dollar.
But the violence stunned Lula’s government, which has been in power for barely a week, and could delay economic policy announcements for this week by an administration eager to show results.
Rui Costa, Lula’s chief of staff, said the government was back at work and that policy decisions would be made in time.