Supporters of Brazil's ex-president storm Congress in echoes of Jan. 6 attack on U.S. Capitol

Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have stormed government buildings in scenes that evoke the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.

Images and videos shared on social media showed Bolsonaro supporters reportedly ransacking Brazil's National Congress building, Supreme Court and the presidential palace.

Brazilian police used tear gas Sunday to try to repel hundreds of supporters of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro after they stormed onto Congress grounds one week after President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva's inauguration, an AFP photographer witnessed.

The area around the parliament building in Brasilia had been cordoned off by authorities, but Bolsonaro backers who refuse to accept leftist Lula's election victory broke through, marched up ramps and gathered on a roof of the modernist building.

Members of former President Donald Trump's MAGA movement have been largely supportive of Bolsonaro's bid to overturn the country's election.

with AFP.

Policial é "escoltado" por bolsonaristas durantes atos antidemocráticos em Brasília. pic.twitter.com/ds1lI7EBMx
— Metrópoles (@Metropoles) January 8, 2023

#Brazil 🇧🇷: footage of pro-#Bolsonaro insurrectionists in the National Assembly building in #Brasilia. It looks like everything is trashed.

Zero respect for democracy from these guys. pic.twitter.com/vxwpq4JvyD
— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) January 8, 2023

It hasn’t been a week since .@LulaOficial sworn in as the new president of #Brazil, and Bolsonaro followers have raided the presidential palace (H/T @Tsavkko) pic.twitter.com/SpTdUwX5GU
— Robert Valencia (@rvalentwit) January 8, 2023

Terroristas bolsonaristas seguem a saga de destruição em Brasília.

Mais um conteúdo publicado no grupo ERONEWS, no Telegram. pic.twitter.com/4vhhvajrY4
— Renato Silva (@FalaiRenato) January 8, 2023