Explosion at Brazil’s Supreme Court Leaves One Person Dead
(Bloomberg) -- One person died after a blast Wednesday night in front of Brazil’s Supreme Court in the capital Brasilia, forcing officials and staff to evacuate the building.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Francisco Wanderley Luiz tried to enter the Supreme Court building with explosives strapped to his body, preliminary investigations show. The spokesman for the Federal District military police, Major Raphael van der Broocke, told journalists on Wednesday that the man “exterminated himself.”
“We still cannot say that he was a lone wolf, investigations are still ongoing,” said Celina Leão, the acting governor of Brazil’s Federal District, who labeled the event a suicide, highlighting that investigations are still preliminary.
Andrei Rodrigues, the director general of Brazil’s Federal Police, said at a Thursday morning press conference that authorities have not established a motive but do not consider it an “isolated” incident.
According to authorities, the man’s death followed a car explosion at 7:30 pm local time.
Justices were safely removed from the court building, the top court said in a statement.
Praça dos Três Poderes, the main access square to the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace, was closed by local authorities. Security at the public buildings was reinforced, said Leão.
Congressional sessions were canceled, according to the lower house. The head of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, said the voting session was closed earlier on Wednesday for security reasons.
After the explosions, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Rodrigues and Supreme Court justices Alexandre de Moraes and Cristiano Zanin to discuss the incident.
Wanderley Luiz was affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party and had run for councilor in 2020, without success, authorities said.
On Thursday, Bolsonaro called the episode “sad” and repudiated “any and all acts of violence.”
“It is past time for Brazil to once again cultivate an adequate space so that different ideas can confront each other peacefully,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Early last year, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters ransacked Congress and rampaged through the presidential palace and Supreme Court in the wake of the former president’s narrow election defeat.
Wednesday’s incident “was not isolated,” Moraes said at an event in Brasilia on Thursday morning. The episode, he said, took place amid a movement that began when the so-called “hate office” — the name given to a group of advisers close to Bolsonaro during his administration — began harshly criticizing Brazilian institutions.
Moraes will oversee the investigation into this week’s incident, according to a person familiar with the situation who requested anonymity to discuss the matter.
The court is considering including Wednesday’s explosions in the scope of its investigation into the Jan. 8, 2023 attacks in Brasilia. Rodrigues, the Federal Police director, said that authorities will probe whether Wanderley Luiz participated in the riots.
--With assistance from Giovanna Serafim.
(Updates with more details on the investigation throughout)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
North Dakota Wants Your Carbon, But Not Your Climate Science
Martha Stewart’s Empire Monetized More Than Just Domesticity
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
