The Biden administration on Sunday condemned Brazilian protesters who broke through security blockades and breached the country’s national Congress, presidential palace, and Supreme Court.
“Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable. We join [President Luiz Inacio Lula Silva] in urging an immediate end to these actions,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote Sunday on Twitter.
White House adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden, who visited the U.S.–Mexico border on Sunday, “is following the situation closely and our support for Brazil’s democratic institutions is unwavering … Brazil’s democracy will not be shaken by violence.”
Videos and photos from the scene in Brasilia, the country’s capital city, showed protesters inside the presidential palace and destroying furniture in Congress and the Supreme Court. Some footage showed protesters on top of the national Congress. Reports indicated that Lula, who was inaugurated on Jan. 1, was not there, while it was likely few officials were working in the Brazilian Congress and Supreme Court on a Sunday….