Argentina orders the arrest of Bolsonaro's supporters
Kyiv • UNN
Argentine courts have decided to arrest 61 Brazilians involved in the January 2023 riots in Brasilia. The fugitives tried to avoid punishment by hiding in Argentina.
Argentine courts have ordered the arrest of 61 Brazilians who faced imprisonment for participating in the riots in Brasilia last year, UNN reports citing the BBC.
Details
In January 2023, supporters of former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress in an attempt to overthrow the new leftist government led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula.
Hundreds of rioters were arrested, charged and released on bail. Some were convicted.
But others fled to Argentina to escape punishment, especially after far-right politician Javier Milei was elected president in December 2023.
Judge Daniel Rafekas said that the warrants would apply to those who had "convictions with a certain period of imprisonment," the Brazilian newspaper Globo reported.
In June of this year, the Brazilian authorities sent an extradition request to Argentina, asking for help in extraditing more than 140 participants in the riots. But many in Brazil doubted whether the Milei government would agree. The Argentine president is a friend of Bolsonaro and has been a vocal critic of Lula, the newspaper points out.
However, in October, Argentina abolished political asylum for people convicted of crimes at home.
On Friday, a judge of the Argentine Federal Court ruled that the arrest warrants should be issued, emphasizing the request of the Brazilian Supreme Court.
Local media also reported that local police arrested one fugitive on Friday in the city of La Plata, about 60 kilometers from the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.
It is unclear whether the whereabouts of other participants in the riots are known.
Addendum
The Brazilian government believes that the January 2023 riots were part of a coup attempt organized by Bolsonaro after his defeat in the fiercely contested presidential election in October of the previous year. He denies any involvement. Less than a week after Lula's inauguration in January 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Congress building, the Supreme Court, and the Presidential Palace in Brasilia.
The arrest warrants were issued only two days after another attack on the Square of the Three Powers in Brasilia, where a former political candidate committed a suicide attack near the Supreme Court.
The police named the man, Francisco Vanderlee Luis, who unsuccessfully ran for the council from the Liberal Party of Bolsonaro.
