Brazil to ask Argentina to extradite alleged Jan. 8 rioters

Authorities in Brazil are planning to ask Argentina to repatriate dozens of their own citizens to face prosecution for their purported role in the Jan. 8 riots that took place in the country’s capital city of Brasilia.

The extradition request reportedly asks for the Argentinian government to return more than 60 people who were present when thousands of Brazilians rioted and stormed government buildings. The riots were driven by supporters of the former military general and president, Jair Bolsonaro, who lost by a slight edge to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in one of the closest presidential elections that the South American country ever had.

Thousands of Brazilians rioted in Brasilia, unlawfully breaking and entering into government buildings, and were subsequently arrested and released on bail but ordered to reappear for court hearings.

Some of them reportedly left the country and requested asylum in Argentina after the election of conservative president Javier Milei took office in Argentina.

The Brazilian extradition request shines a light on their current residency status as well as the current political climate between the two nations, which has been tense since Lula is on the left and Milei is on the right. Milei is also known to be critical of Lula’s far left policies.

According to a report published by the BBC, Federal Police Chief Andrei Passos told local media, “We will list all those convicted who are possibly in Argentina and forward extradition requests.”

The Jan. 8, 2023 riots have been compared to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots that took place in Washington when Vice President Mike Pence and Congress were counting and preparing to certify the electoral vote for then President elect Joe Biden.

To date, the U.S. Dept. of Justice is prosecuting nearly a thousand Americans who have been accused of unlawfully entering the Capitol building in Washington.

Since the Jan. 8 riots, Bolsonaro has been placed under investigation for election interference. On Feb. 8, ADN reported that the former general and president was forced to surrender his passport to Brazilian authorities. Some Brazilian authorities have accused the former president of participating or steeling the rioters to action as part of a coup against the new Lula da Silva administration.

For his part, Bolsonaro has denied all involvement in the event.

The former Brazilian president left the country for a short vacation in the U.S. after the election but returned to his South American homeland in March 2023. Upon his arrival, he gave an inspirational speech to many of his supporters at the headquarters of the Liberal Party.

Bolsonaro supporters showed their loyalty to the former president, waving Brazilian flags as they cheered the word “legend,” while the former military general was escorted out a side exit to secure transportation.

While some law enforcement officers were injured in the Jan. 8 riots, others were placed under arrest and investigated for their purported inaction in preventing the event that resulted in the breaking and entering as well as vandalism of the Brazilian Congress and the Supreme Court.

Lula has actually accused “people inside the armed forces” of colluding with the rioters. One

On Feb. 8, 2023, ADN reported that Brazilian authorities had arrested Col. Jorge Eduardo Naime, a high ranking military police commander for “dereliction of duty” as part of what has been termed the “Lesa Patria” investigation.

On Sept. 17, the BBC reported that one man, 51-year old Aecio Pereira, who was filming outside the courthouse but entered the Brazilian senate building, was sentenced to 17 years in prison. He has also denied wrongdoing and said he believed he was participating in a peaceful protest.

According to the BBC however, Pereira was wearing a t-shirt with the words, “military intervention” and filmed himself encouraging rioters to “take to the streets.”

When Pereira was sentenced, Brazilian Justice Cristiano Zanin said that “the rioters objective was to violently seize Brasilia and spread a criminal attack against the rule of law across the country.”