Brazil was reeling Monday after hundreds of supporters of the country's former leader Jair Bolsonaro stormed the seats of power in the capital Brasilia, trashing offices and drawing condemnation from the government and the international community. More than a thousand people have been arrested, with Brazilian Justice Minister Flavio Dino telling reporters Monday that there had been “about 1,500” arrests in Brasilia since the Sunday riots… The attack bore similarities to the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington DC, when supporters of ex-US President Donald Trump – a close ally of Bolsonaro – stormed Congress in an effort to prevent the certification of his election defeat…

The floor of the Congress building was flooded after the sprinkler system activated when protesters attempted to set fire to the carpet, according to CNN Brasil. Additional videos showed protesters inside the building taking gifts received from international delegations and destroying artwork. Brazil’s Presidential Communications Minister Paulo Pimenta described how there was blood, feces and urine found in the palace rooms. “Onlookers said they seemed beside themselves with hate, like a horde of zombies. They were running down hallways, smashing things, urinating, defecating in the corridors and in the rooms on one destruction spree,” he stated…

Spurred by unfounded claims of election fraud, supporters draped in Brazil’s national colors and wearing the shirt of the national football team – both of which became central motifs of Bolsonaro’s campaigns – spilled into major government buildings, smashing windows and using furniture to form barricades against security forces. But the events of Sunday did not emerge from nowhere. Bolsonaro supporters had been camped out in the capital since his election defeat…

A number of camps filled by supporters of the ex-president have also appeared outside Brazilian military bases, with some calling for a coup by the armed forces reminiscent of the two-decade military regime that ruled Brazil from 1964.

Dino said on Twitter on Christmas Day that those camps had become “incubators for terrorists,” after a man was arrested for attempting to set off a bomb in protest against Brazil’s election results.