Thousands of Bolsonaristas demand in the streets a military intervention that prevents Lula from assuming power

Several thousand Bolsonarists convinced that the presidential elections were fraudulent took to the streets this Tuesday to demand a military intervention that prevents the winner, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from assuming power.

It is the most serious expression of the anger of the followers of the defeated president Jair Bolsonaro, who the day before, in his first statement since the elections, avoided acknowledging the result or congratulating his rival.

Summoned by networks and wrapped in the flag of their country, they have staged coup protests in front of Army headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasilia, among other state capitals.

The two months that remain until the inauguration of the new president on January 1 in Brasilia are especially delicate due to the attitude of Bolsonaro, who by sowing doubts has managed to make a good part of his followers believe that there was electoral fraud.

In any case, the work for the transfer of powers is already underway.

Lula's team for the transition, led by the future vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, is in contact with the minister in charge of the government.

And it is already known that Lula's first international act after his victory will be to attend the COP 27 climate summit, this month in Egypt.

The fact that the outgoing president remained silent for two days after losing the elections and the ambiguity of his very brief speech have given wings to these mobilizations of the most radical supporters.

Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that "peaceful protests are welcome," which was a criticism of the truckers who blocked roads across the country in protest of the result.

But he also opened the door to concentrations like these in front of the barracks.

Bolsonaro has formally authorized the transfer, but he does not want to give the impression, before the most radical followers, those who did not abandon him even at the worst moment of the pandemic, that he is giving in.

Jorge Luiz Faria, 67, explained his motivation to join the coup protest in São Paulo and demand what he defines as "the military bringing order": "We cannot let communism enter, what we want is a democracy normal”, said this retiree who was a merchant of industrial supplies.

Faria does not want a military government, he says, but for the uniformed men to organize "new fair elections."

He is convinced that Bolsonaro would win them.

With him, Julieta Seiko Abe, 64, a retired hotel manager and convinced that "the one they say (Lula) did not win" and that if the Superior Electoral Court proclaimed him the winner it is because "those from the Supreme Court are militants of the criminal left.

Douglas Luis, a 35-year-old private security employee, was at the São Paulo protest to prevent Lula's return to power and convinced that the annulment of the convictions against the leader of the Workers' Party was nothing more than a fix : "We do not want a president who is an ex-prisoner who was released with a signature."

Among those present at the São Paulo protest, Brazilians of all ages and colors dressed in the green and yellow of the flag: groups of friends, many couples, some families with children and also some recognizable fans of motorcycles or weapons because of the slogans on their shirts because in Brazil you cannot circulate armed except in very specific transfers.

The atmosphere was a strange mixture of tension and party, with many of them taking

or broadcasting live on social networks.

Aerial view of the protest in front of the Army headquarters this Wednesday in São Paulo.

MIGUEL SCHINCARIOL (AFP)

The Brazilian media have taken several hours to report on the coup protests.

And no state authority has spoken either.

The demonstrators arrived at the gates of the barracks with well-coordinated slogans.

In the protest there were few banners and few proclamations.

That yes, total coincidence in the surname of the protest.

All demanded a "federal intervention", nothing military, to avoid being branded as coup plotters.

And no reference to President Bolsonaro, with the aim of protecting him from possible future accusations.

That this November 2 is a holiday, the day of the Finados, has possibly contributed to increasing participation in the protests.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro truckers continue with the roadblocks, but the roads affected are fewer than the day before.

They are blockades in about 150 points (to understand the magnitude, Brazil has 5,000 municipalities).

The president does not have a party that he can consider his own, an acronym of convenience was sought for the elections (the Liberal Party), but he leads a movement without a broad or solid structure that is coordinated and is capable of bringing together large groups in a short time.

One of the most celebrated slogans of the Bolsonaro demonstrations in recent years and heard this Wednesday is: "I came for free", in reference to the fact that Lula's Workers' Party often mobilizes its militants in buses.

The president's supporters presume to arrive by their own means.

While his team begins the work for the transfer of power, Lula has gone to rest for three days in a house on a paradisiacal beach in the State of Bahia with his wife, Janja.

The campaign prevented the couple from enjoying a honeymoon after their wedding in May.

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