Democracy, quite literally, under attack

Less than a day after a man died in a failed bombing attack outside the Supreme Court headquarters in the capital Brasília on Wednesday evening, Brazil is still in shock. 

Security camera footage showed Francisco Wanderley Luiz, 59, a locksmith and failed city council candidate from the southern state of Santa Catarina, advancing toward the Supreme Court building while holding explosives, drawing the attention of security guards.

After throwing explosive devices toward the famous Lady Justice statue that sits outside the court, the assailant was seen igniting another device and lying on top of it, indicating a suicide attempt. He was killed by the explosion.

His car, parked nearby, had also been detonated after being filled with explosives.

Hours before his failed bomb plot, Mr. Luiz had threatened Brazilian authorities and well-known journalists on social media, whom he branded communists.

Mr. Luiz’s unsuccessful council election attempt came in 2020, when he represented the Liberal Party, the political group that far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro would join one year later.

On Thursday, police searched the apartment Mr. Luiz had been renting outside Brasília, finding several other explosive devices and safely detonating others. Police believe he acted alone.

Beyond the shock of such an incident, the bombing attack is set to have significant repercussions on politics in Brasília. The country’s far-right had been pushing relentlessly for an amnesty for those convicted after the anti-democratic riots in January 2023, but Wednesday’s events make such clemency near impossible.

And, in turn, the ramifications could be negative for Mr. Bolsonaro, who is likely to be indicted for inciting the anti-democratic attacks of January 8. The former president had sought to portray that day’s events as an isolated incident, but Wednesday’s bombing suggests otherwise.

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