Four dead and 52 arrested in US Capitol assault

The political process in the US Congress that was to ratify Joe Biden's victory in the US presidential elections ended in a genuine tragedy owing to the assault by radicals sympathetic to outgoing President Donald Trump on the latter's stance of failing to recognise the result of the November 3 elections that gave the Democratic candidate the victory.  

The violence reached Washington's Capitol and surpassed the limits of what had never been seen in the nearly two and a half centuries of American democracy. Thousands of Trump's Republican supporters attacked the Capitol and forced the departure of the congressmen and Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the session that was to end with Biden's firm appointment. 

The building was raided with a serious display of violence and noncompliance with regulations, resulting in a Dantesque situation that ended with the death of four people: a woman, apparently a Trump supporter, who was fatally shot by the police, and three others who died from medical complications, according to information from local authorities. It was also reported that up to 14 police officers were injured and 52 arrests were made.

"This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic", declared George W. Bush - the only living president of the Republican Party, the same one to which Donald Trump belongs - in a statement issued last night in which he described as "insurrection" the assault on Congress which, "has been carried out by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes", Bush said.

There was no firm action by Donald Trump's government to stop the attack, only an announcement after the outgoing president mobilized the National Guard. Donald Trump's supporters displayed flags with the Republican leader's name and removed banners with the American flag during the attack.  

As the hours passed, Donald Trump decided to write on the social network Twitter to ask his followers to go home. Although, despite the seriousness of the events, the still president insisted on not recognizing the result of the past elections. "We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side," said the president. After Trump held a rally in the Mall, the park that occupies the centre of Washington, Trump once again called Joe Biden "an illegitimate president", reiterating he does not accept the election results, despite that more than 80 legal appeals filed alleging electoral fraud by his team have not been upheld by courts.

This reignited the mood and thousands of Donald Trump supporters marched to the Capitol to star in the fatal assault on Congress. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense refused to accede to the request of the Capitol Police to send reinforcements; and the Department of Homeland Security did nothing either. Only after the assault had been underway for two hours did the Executive announce it would send both soldiers and police to the Capitol. 

It was too late and agents in charge of the Capitol's own security were overwhelmed. Raiders broke into the House of Representatives and destroyed everything in their path.  

The 534 legislators present (435 representatives and 99 senators) were evacuated to the basement of the building and the police intervention even left a dead woman in the premises of the capital building.  

Vice President Mike Pence was ready to make the ratification of Biden's victory a reality, but Donald Trump expected his vice president to apply a supposed legal clause whereby he could declare invalid the results in the six states he needs to win and thus suspend the ratification of Biden's victory. Pence, who chaired the session, refused to do so, on the grounds that it was not legal. Thirteen Republican Party senators then challenged the results, in line with Trump's demand. It was a decision that broke with the line adopted by the party itself and received harsh criticism from the head of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who has been one of Trump's greatest allies throughout his presidency. McConnell raised these very concerns and cautioned his members against advancing such objections. “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral".

Donald Trump's supporters gathered in other cities in other states on Wednesday in protests similar to the one that ended with the assault on the Capitol in Washington.

The rallies took place in parliamentary seats in Salem (Oregon), Atlanta (Georgia), Denver (Colorado), Salt Lake City (Utah), Austin (Texas), Little Rock (Arkansas) and Topeka (Kansas). In Salt Lake City, the staff of the Utah Capitol received orders to evacuate the building, and in Georgia, a state which has played a leading role in the elections that have given control of the Senate to the Democratic Party in recent hours, the police had to escort the state secretary of state, the Republican Brad Raffensperger, owing to the presence of armed militia members in front of the legislative building.

In Salem, several hundred Trump supporters gathered in front of Oregon's Capitol with several proclamations: "This is the President. We are not going home. This has just begun". In this state, even demonstrators with guns appeared. 

In Atlanta, dozens of the president's supporters gathered in front of the state Capitol, many of them carrying American flags; and in Denver, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the Colorado Capitol. In Topeka, the capital of Kansas, the protesters gathered inside the Capitol itself in an authoritative and peaceful manner. "There are no incidents that I am aware of," a Kansas Capitol Police spokesman Terry Golightly told CNN.