Brazil’s toxic presidential election has taken a surreal and violent turn after a radical ally of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, used hand grenades and a rifle to attack federal police officers as they attempted to arrest him.
Roberto Jefferson, a former congressman who has called Bolsonaro a “personal friend”, launched the attack on Sunday after police arrived at his home in the mountains north of Rio de Janeiro. Two officers reportedly sustained non-fatal shrapnel wounds, while photographs showed a federal police vehicle riddled with bullet holes.
“I shot at the car and close to them,” the rightwing radical admitted in an online video, claiming he was resisting arrest “in the name of freedom, democracy and family values”.
Jefferson was jailed in August 2021 as part of an investigation into anti-democratic social media mobs but was granted house arrest in January. On Sunday, a supreme court judge ordered the 69-year-old be returned to prison after he published a vulgar and threatening broadside against a female member of the court in which he likened her to a sex worker and Lucifer.
When a small group of federal police officers arrived at Jefferson’s door late on Sunday morning to execute the warrant, Jefferson fought back.
Bolsonaro’s initial response to the violence was halfhearted, with the president calling the attack on police “an unfortunate incident”. But a nationwide outcry appeared to force him to harden his stance for fear of alienating moderate voters before next Sunday’s election run-off with the former leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
After Jefferson was finally arrested following an eight-hour stand-off, Bolsonaro posted a video on social media in which he branded his associate a “crook”. He also sought to distance himself from his ally, claiming falsely that no photographs of the pair existed.
The pro-Bolsonaro politician and former justice minister Sergio Moro – who initially called the shooting “totally clueless” – also toughened his position, denouncing Jefferson’s actions as “extremely serious and unjustifiable”.
Lula, who is the frontrunner to become Brazil’s next leader, was more biting in his criticism of the assault. “Democracy and civilisation will prevail over barbarity,” he tweeted, expressing solidarity with the wounded officers.
On Monday, a campaign advert produced by Lula’s election team warned voters: “Bolsonarista violence has reached alarming heights … We need to put an end to this hatred and violence. Brazil needs peace.”
Brazilian observers have called this election the most important, and tempestuous, race for power since the return of democracy to the country in the 1980s.
Bolsonaro’s radical rhetoric – which includes calling the election a battle between rightwing good and leftist evil – has been blamed for creating a toxic atmosphere in which a succession of violent attacks and murders have been committed.
“The country is moving toward a savagery we have never before known,” Lula, who governed from 2003-11, said last month after a Bolsonarista fatally stabbed one of his supporters in the Amazon.
On Sunday night, a man on a motorbike reportedly shot at a campaign event in the north-eastern city of Natal in which a longtime Lula ally, the leftist governor Fátima Bezerra, was taking part.
Lula’s already large security detail has reportedly been expanded for fear he could be targeted in the final days of the campaign.
Progressive Brazilians had hoped Lula would win the first round of the election outright on 2 October, bringing the noxious, fake news-filled campaign to an end. However, the veteran leftist narrowly failed to secure an overall majority of votes, meaning he and Bolsonaro will face off in a second round vote next Sunday.
In recent days, both men have been touring three key south-eastern states, Minas Gerais, Rio and São Paulo, which are home to more than 60 million voters. On Friday, they will come face-to-face in Rio during the final and potentially decisive televised presidential debate.
