New CCTV footage fuels debate over January 8 riots in Brazil

By Vasco Cotovio and Isa Soares, CNN

A man dressed in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag walks towards a glass table inside the Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia with a metal rod in his hand. In one decisive swoop he swings it towards the table, shattering it to pieces.

The moment — one of many supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro ransacked the seat of the Brazilian presidency on January 8 — was captured on new CCTV footage, exclusively obtained by CNN affiliate CNN Brasil.

The footage provides new insight into one of the darkest days in in the life of Brazil’s young democracy. It also appears to bolster the claims of those who accused police of failing to act to stop protesters from breaking into the Presidential Palace, among other government buildings.

Days after the incident, President Lula da Silva said he believed that some police had colluded with protesters, alleging political bias among security forces.

“There were a lot of people colluding, it’s important to say, there were a lot of conniving people from the military police, there were a lot of conniving people from the armed forces,” he told journalists at the Presidential Palace on January 12.

The newly obtained footage shows police forces seemingly retreating as supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — who was ousted in a vote last fall — march on the palace. Some police support vehicles drive away and groups of police with riot shields appear to disperse.

Inside, security is seen locking the main glass door of the Palace, but then seemingly moving away as rioters enter the building. Once they, do the ransacking begins; protesters can be seen breaking antique clocks, smashing tables, phones and nearly everything else they can get their hands on.

Former policeman and public security researcher Cassio Thyone says that some officers may have conducted themselves inappropriately, possibly believing that the protestors could not break in.

“I don’t believe it was incompetence, maybe some negligence. It wasn’t all of them but some police officers ended up thinking there was no risk of an invasion,” Thyone said.

The Institutional Security Office, known as GSI, which advises the president on security matters and handles law enforcement and security personnel tasked with safeguarding Presidential Palaces and their staff, said its officers were being investigated, but defended their conduct as an attempt to strategically concentrate demonstrators onto a single floor to arrest them.

“The GSI states that the images show the performance of security officers, which was, at first, with the intent of evacuating the fourth and third floors of the Planalto Palace, concentrating the demonstrators on the second floor, where, after waiting for the reinforcement of the military police riot squad, it would be possible to arrest them,” the GSI said in a statement on Wednesday.

“It must be known that the conduct of the GSI public officers involved is being investigated in an inquiry initiated within the scope of this Ministry and if irregular conduct is proven, the corresponding authors will be held responsible,” it also said.

Fueling theories

Conspiracy theorists on Brazil’s right have seized on the new footage.

At the time of the riots, many in the opposition argued the incidents had actually helped cement Lula’s leadership and claimed, without evidence, that the government had set police up to fail for that exact reason.

Bolsonaro’s party — the Brazilian Liberal Party — has used the footage to once again call for a parliamentary inquiry into the incident, tying the incidents to Lula and his government.

“We need justice and transparency to identify the real culprits,” the party tweeted on Wednesday.

Brazil’s Minister for Institutional Relations Alexandre Padilha has also said that the current government supports an inquiry. Speaking to journalists on Thursday in Brasilia, Padilha also said that the footage had created “a new political situation” that risked bolstering unfounded theories about the insurrection.

“[This footage] has created a new political situation, which makes those that tried to sweep the terrorists acts of January 8 under the rug try to create an absurd conspiracy theory, a real bulldozing, the theory they try to build is that the victims of those terrorist acts had responsibility over the behaviour of the terrorists of January 8.”

The minister in charge of the GSI, General Marcos Gonçalves Dias, resigned this week, after critics raised questions over new CCTV footage that showed him walking alongside some of the rioters just feet away from the Presidential office. Minutes later, the same camera captures military officers greeting rioters and handing out bottles of water.

When asked about his particular role, Dias — a long-time ally and friend of President Lula — denied that he was colluding with the protesters.

“To liken my behaviour to that Major distributing waters to protesters is absurd,” he told Brazilian broadcaster Globo. “I entered the Palace after the Palace had been broken into, and I was taking people out of the third and fourth floor, to the second floor, so that they could be arrested.”

Leaving more questions than answers, the video has added fuel to both sides of a fiery division still plaguing Brazilian politics.

The-CNN-Wire
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