Brazil riots: Arrests ordered for top officials after capital stormed

One official, the former commander of the military police, has been arrested, local media reported.

The officials also include Brasília's former public security chief Anderson Torres and others "responsible for acts and omissions" leading to the riots, the attorney general's office said.

Mr Torres denies any role in the riots.

Colonel Fábio Augusto, the police commander, was dismissed from his role after supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court.

The rioting came a week after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, widely known as Lula, was sworn in.

The dramatic scenes saw thousands of protesters, some clad in yellow Brazil football shirts and waving flags, overrun police and ransack the heart of the Brazilian state.

Of the approximately 1,500 people arrested and brought to the police academy after the riot, officials say that nearly 600 have been taken to other facilities, where police officials have five days to formally charge them.

Earlier on Tuesday, the federal intervenor in public security accused Mr Torres of "a structured sabotage operation".

Ricardo Cappelli, who has been appointed to run security in Brasília, said there was a "lack of command" from Mr Torres before government buildings were stormed.

Lula's inauguration on 1 January was "an extremely successful security operation," Mr Cappelli told CNN.

What changed before Sunday was that, on 2 January, "Anderson Torres took over as Secretary of Security, dismissed the entire command and travelled", he said.

"If this isn't sabotage, I don't know what is," Mr Cappelli added.

Mr Torres said that he deeply regretted the "absurd hypotheses" that he played any part in the riots.

He said the scenes, which occurred during his family holiday, were lamentable and said it was "the most bitter day" of his personal and professional life.

Lula has accused security forces of "neglecting" their duty in not halting the "terrorist acts" in Brasília.

The former president, who has condemned the riots, has not admitted defeat from October's tight election that divided the nation, and flew to the US before the handover on 1 January.

On Monday, he was admitted to hospital in Florida with abdominal pain relating to a stabbing attack during his election campaign in 2018. Reports say he left the hospital on Tuesday.

Mr Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that he intended to return to Brazil, telling CNN that he would bring forward his departure from the US, which was originally scheduled for the end of January.

A day after the riots, heavily armed officers started dismantling a camp of Mr Bolsonaro's supporters in Brasília - one of a number that have been set up outside army barracks around the country since the presidential election.

Mr Torres, who previously served as Mr Bolsonaro's justice minister, was fired from his role as Secretary of Public Security on Sunday by Brasília governor Ibaneis Rocha.

Mr Rocha was himself later removed from his post for 90 days by the Supreme Court.

Lula has also taken aim at the security forces, accusing them of "incompetence, bad faith or malice" for failing to stop demonstrators accessing Congress.

"You will see in the images that they [police officers] are guiding people on the walk to Praca dos Tres Powers," he said. "We are going to find out who the financiers of these vandals who went to Brasília are and they will all pay with the force of law."

Video shared by the Brazilian outlet O Globo showed some officers laughing and taking photos together as demonstrators occupied the congressional campus in the background.

-bbc