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Brazil’s Lula says coup bid will fail as he meets country’s governors

President works from his office as demonstrations supporting democracy are held in several cities nationwide

People in downtown Rio de Janeiro protest against the attacks on Brazil's congress. Photograph: Maria Magdalena Arrellaga/The New York Times

Tue Jan 10 2023 - 07:02

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva worked from his office, meeting the country’s governors, heads of congress and the supreme court a day after Brazil’s capital was stormed by his predecessor’s supporters.

“We are not going to allow democracy to slip out of our hands,” Lula said at the meeting. “They want a coup, and there won’t be a coup.”

All 27 governors accepted Lula’s invitation – even allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro – to meet in the Palácio do Planalto, damaged by Bolsonaro supporters the day before.

The president, governors, heads of congress and court justices then all walked together to the top court building, which had also been vandalised, as demonstrations in defence of democracy took place in several cities nationwide.

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Protesters swarmed into Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace on Sunday.

Many of them said they wanted the Brazilian army to restore the far-right Mr Bolsonaro to power and oust the newly inaugurated leftist president.

Police broke down a pro-Bolsonaro encampment outside a military building on Monday and detained some 1,200 people there, the justice ministry’s press office said.

Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has vowed to find those responsible for organising an attack on the capital Brasilia. Video: Reuters

Mr Bolsonaro has been admitted to a US hospital with abdominal pain a day after his supporters stormed Brasília.

The conservative leader, who travelled to the United States on December 30th to skip the inauguration of his successor, is reportedly being treated at a hospital near Orlando, Florida.

A former aide to Bolsonaro said he was being treated for possible intestinal obstruction. The ex-president has undergone several surgeries after being stabbed in the abdomen while campaigning in 2018.

The former president on Monday evening posted a photograph of himself on his Twitter page showing him in a hospital bed, adding that he’s in Orlando. “Thanks for the prayers and messages of speedy recovery, he said. – Agencies

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