Roadblocks intensified on Tuesday morning in Brazil two days after Lula was elected president, with many truck drivers and pro-Bolsonaro protesters refusing to accept the defeat of the far-right president. The Federal Road Police (PRF) reported 250 roadblocks, total or partial, in at least 23 of Brazil’s 27 states.
“Lula no! was written on a sign hung above a viaduct in Sao Paulo, the economic capital, where several roads were also blocked, in particular that which connects it the big metropolis to Rio de Janeiro, preventing the departure of buses between the two cities. Santa Catarina (South), where Jair Bolsonaro won nearly 70% of the vote, is the state with the highest number of blocked roads.
The “immediate release” ordered by the courts
“I hope to return home” to Rio. “I was able to pay for a night in a hotel here but a lot of people had to sleep here at the bus station,” Rosangela Senna, a 62-year-old real estate agent, told AFP.
A Supreme Court judge ordered the “immediate unblocking of roads and public thoroughfares,” the institution said in a statement late Monday. He ordered the PRF to take “all necessary measures” to free the roads, or risk fining or imprisoning its general manager for “disobedience”.
Bolsonaro still does not recognize his defeat
More than 36 hours after the official results, outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro has still not recognized his defeat on the wire (50.9%-49.1%), unlike several allies of his government.
Many foreign heads of state have congratulated Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the left-wing candidate, for his third term as head of the country, after those between 2003 and 2010, which will officially begin on January 1.
In the capital Brasilia, the police have restricted since Monday evening the access of vehicles to the Square of the Three Powers, where the Presidential Palace, the Parliament and the Supreme Court are located, close to the immense esplanade of the ministries, place of assembly in the capital. This “preventive” measure was taken “after the identification of a possible demonstration convened at this place on social networks”, had indicated the secretariat of Public Security of the Federal District of Brasilia (SSP / DF).