Thousands of demonstrators, especially truck drivers, blocked roads this Tuesday for the second day in support of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has not yet accepted his electoral defeat against the leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
During a brief speech on Tuesday, Bolsonaro said that he would “comply” with the constitution, but made no reference to his electoral defeat. However, his chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira, took the podium to say that Bolsonaro had “authorized” the “transition” process.
Bolsonaro also said that any protest should be “peaceful” and do no harm, after his supporters blocked roads across the country following his electoral defeat.
“Peaceful protests will always be welcome. But our methods should not be those of the left, which always harm the population, such as invading property and preventing the right to come and go,” he said in his first comments since Sunday’s elections.
However, in Novo Hamburgo, near the southern city of Porto Alegre, police fired tear gas to break up a protest on one of the main highways,
The executive director of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), Marco Antonio Territo de Barros, said at a press conference in the capital Brasilia that there was 267 roadblocks throughout Brazil and that 306 were already dispersed since Sunday.
“It is a complex operation, which involves more than 33,000 kilometres (46,500 miles) of federal highways,” he said.
Monday night , protests blocked roads outside Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport, the country’s main international hub, and several flights were cancelled, local media reported. Key routes in other cities such as Rio de Janeiro were also blocked.
Bolsonaro has not yet conceded defeat after official results showed that Lula won the presidential election by just 1.8 percentage points.
However, the Brazilian Minister of Communications, Fabio Faria, told the Reuters news agency that Bolsonaro would address the nation later on Tuesday and would not contest his defeat at the polls, although there was no immediate confirmation. of the president himself.
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