Bolsonaro Supporters Force Entry into Brazil Capital's Mall

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. (Reuters)
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. (Reuters)
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Bolsonaro Supporters Force Entry into Brazil Capital's Mall

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. (Reuters)
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. (Reuters)

Supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro broke through police roadblocks Monday night that had sought to prevent access to the capital's central mall on the eve of a demonstration scheduled to coincide with Brazil's Independence Day.

The Federal District's security secretariat said in a statement that officers had been deployed in an effort to control the situation. Video shared on social media showed trucks progressing while blaring their horns as hundreds of people dressed in the national green-and-yellow colors walked alongside and cheered, reported The Associated Press.

Bolsonaro has been working to mobilize his biggest nationwide street demonstration yet and project strength following a string of setbacks, particularly at the hands of Brazil's Supreme Court. But it carries risk of embarrassment if crowd numbers fall short or if there is violence perceived as stemming from the president’s influence.

Forced entry into the mall, called the Esplanade of Ministries, heightened a sense of alert ahead of Tuesday’s demonstration, which some analysts have warned runs a risk of resembling the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol. For over a month, Bolsonaro has been aiming his ire at two of the top court’s justices in particular.

As of late Monday, Bolsonaro supporters had reached the opposite end of the mall, where police stood guard behind metal barricades outside the Congress and the Supreme Court.

Convoys of trucks and busses have been streaming toward the capital of Brasilia and Brazil’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, where the nation’s two biggest demonstrations are set to take place Tuesday and Bolsonaro will speak.



Kremlin: Putin Not Ruling Out Talks with Ukraine, but Wants Guarantees

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on a TV camera screen as he speaks during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on a TV camera screen as he speaks during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)
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Kremlin: Putin Not Ruling Out Talks with Ukraine, but Wants Guarantees

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on a TV camera screen as he speaks during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on a TV camera screen as he speaks during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not ruling out talks with Ukraine, but guarantees will be needed to ensure the credibility of any negotiations, Russian news agencies cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Sunday.

More than 90 countries took part in a two-day event at the Buergenstock resort in central Switzerland aimed at uniting global opinion on how to end Moscow's 27-month-old invasion.
Russia was not invited to those talks.

Kyiv's positions have been taken into consideration in the final communique for the summit, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Sunday.

"The text is balanced, all of our principled positions on which Ukraine had insisted have been considered," he told reporters.

Kuleba also hinted that Russia could be involved in a future summit but dismissed Putin's demand on Friday that Kyiv cede four regions of Ukraine that Russia has occupied and drop its goal of joining NATO.