Brazil's congressional president calls for "urgent" punishment of radicals

The president of the Brazilian Congress, Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, today called for "urgent" punishment and the "rigour of the law" for Bolsonaro supporters who have invaded the seats of Parliament, the Presidency of the Republic and the Supreme Court in Brasilia.

"I vehemently repudiate these anti-democratic acts, which must urgently feel the rigour of the law," Pachecho said in a message published on his social networks.

The senator reported that he is in "permanent contact" with the governor of the Federal District of Brasilia, Ibaneis Rocha, who assured him that "he is concentrating the efforts of the entire police apparatus" to "control the situation".

"In the action, the security forces of the Federal District are involved, as well as the Legislative Police of the Congress," Pacheco added.

Hundreds of supporters of Brazil's former president, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, who reject the victory in last October's elections of the current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office on 1 January, marched through Brasilia today and invaded the seats of parliament, the presidency and the Supreme Court.

According to videos circulating on social networks, the radicals, who in recent months have camped outside the gates of the barracks to demand a military "intervention" to prevent Lula's inauguration, have caused damage of varying degrees inside these premises.

Hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters are still occupying the Plaza de los Tres Poderes, where the Supreme Court, the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and the Planalto Palace - the seat of government - are located, all surrounded by a crowd dressed in the green and yellow colours of the Brazilian flag.

Lula was not in Brasilia on Sunday, but travelled to Araraquara, in the interior of Sao Paulo, to analyse the damage caused by the heavy rains in the region.

Bolsonaro is currently in the United States, where he travelled two days before Lula's inauguration with no official plans to return.