Lula acts over palace guards as riot charges unveiled

BRASILIA — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has removed 40 soldiers guarding the presidential residence after expressing distrust in the military for failing to act against demonstrators that ransacked government buildings this month. He acted as the prosecutor-general's office presented the first charges laid against the rioters in the Jan 8 attack.

Just days after the attack on the presidential palace, Supreme Court and Congress by backers of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, Lula said the rioters likely had inside help.

He ordered a thorough staffing review, saying he was "convinced that the door of the Planalto (presidential) palace was opened for people to enter because there are no broken doors".

In a notice published in the official gazette on Tuesday, it was announced that the 40 soldiers had been removed from the presidential detail at Alvorada palace, where Brazil's presidents live.

On the legal front, the office of Brazil's prosecutor-general has presented its first charges against some of the thousands of people that authorities say stormed the government buildings in an effort to overturn Bolsonaro's loss in a presidential election in October.

The prosecutors in the recently formed group have requested that the 39 defendants who ransacked Congress be imprisoned as a preventive measure, and that 40 million reais ($7.7 million) of their assets be frozen to help cover damages.

The defendants have been charged with armed criminal association, violent attempt to subvert the democratic state of law, staging a coup and damage to public property, the prosecutor-general's office said in a statement on Monday night. Their identities have not yet been released.

More than 1,000 people were arrested on the day of the riot. Those who stormed through the Brazilian Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in the capital, Brasilia, sought to have the armed forces intervene and overturn Bolsonaro's loss to Lula.

The rioters "attempted, with the use of violence and serious threat, to abolish the democratic rule of law, preventing or restricting the exercise of constitutional powers", according to an excerpt of the charges included in a statement.

The prosecutor-general's office sent its charges to the Supreme Court after the Senate's president, Rodrigo Pacheco, last week provided a list of people accused of rampaging through Congress. Additional rioters are expected to be charged.

Investigations into the rampage have begun to show apparently intentional lapses in security that allowed it to occur.

                                                                                                     Xinhua

Bolsonaro, who left Brazil two days before Lula's inauguration, is being investigated on suspicion of instigating the uprising. He has denied any link to the riots. In a video published on Monday, Bolsonaro expressed "regret" over the events.