The scene at the Supreme Court building after the explosions. Image: Art by Global Voices over picture by Bruno Peres/Agência Brasil. Used with permission.
Congresswoman Erika Hilton was giving a press conference on the latest developments regarding a proposal that could reduce working hours for Brazilians, at the Planalto Palace hall, the presidential working building, when two explosions were heard on November 13, around 7:30 pm. Only 500 meters away, one person lay dead in front of the Supreme Court building in Brasília, Brazil's federal capital.
The first explosion came from a car parked next to the Lower Chamber that had been loaded with fireworks, bricks, and explosives. Around 20 seconds afterward, a second explosion was set off in front of the Supreme Court, leaving one man dead. The justices were finishing a session and were led to exit the building as a security measure.
The deceased was identified as Francisco Wanderley Luiz, 59. Civil police have named him as the car's registered owner. He was dressed in clothes with images of playing card suits — likely a reference to the comic book character Batman's archenemy, the Joker.
For many in Brasília, the incident was reminiscent of when crowds invaded and vandalized the Supreme Court building less than two years ago, on January 8, 2023, attempting to force a coup d'état only one week after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated for a third term as Brazil's president.
The 2023 attacks, alongside a second bombing attempt, were a culmination of months of protests after Lula defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections, with the former president refusing to acknowledge the result.
After the attacks, over 2,000 bolsonaristas, as Bolsonaro's supporters are known in Brazil, were arrested. Some were sentenced to 17 years in prison for invading and damaging the Three Powers public buildings — the presidential building, the Supreme Court, and the National Congress. Bolsonaro himself, who headed to the United States to avoid attending Lula's inauguration, is currently under investigation for promoting anti-democratic acts.
The Federal Police launched an official inquiry to investigate this latest attack. The findings have yet to be released.
Who is Francisco Wanderley Luiz?
Authorities are still investigating Francisco Wanderley Luiz and his potential motivation in the bombings. A locksmith by trade, in 2020, he ran for the city council of Rio do Sul, a city of roughly 72,500 people in the southern state of Santa Catarina. Luiz, who identified as “Tiü França,” was affiliated with PL, the Liberal Party, which Bolsonaro joined a year later, in 2021.
Brazilian news outlets, such as ICL, have been reporting that Luiz had been posting threats on his social media in the months leading up to the attack. On August 24, Luiz posted a selfie from the Supreme Court plenary with the caption, “They let the fox enter the chicken coop” and “You've been warned.”
The same day, he visited parliamentarian Jorge Goetten's office, a politician affiliated with the Republican party and part of Bolsonaro's base. The congressman, who said he wasn't in office when Luiz tried to visit, told Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that he had known Luiz for over 30 years, and each time they met last year Luiz seemed “emotionally shaken.”
ICL also mentions screenshots of WhatsApp messages that the man sent himself. In one of them, he writes: “Let's play??? Federal Police, you have 72 hours to disarm the bomb in the house of shitty communists.”
The day after the attack, the Federal Police said in a press conference that he had been living in Brasília for three or four months and that the explosives were handcrafted, but with a high potential to cause damage. A video shows the man throwing what looks like small explosives at the Justice statue in front of the Supreme Court and laying his head over another one, which led to his death.
The Federal Police said Luiz was in Brasília in January 2023, but they have yet to confirm if he participated in the January 8th attacks. The rented house he had been living in, just outside of Brasília, contained more explosives and was covered in graffiti referencing the event.
Long wolf or a systemic issue?
While some see the attacks as an act of a “lone wolf,” the story is part of a larger context that has been brewing in Brazil for the last few years. The Federal Police General Director, Andrei Passos Rodrigues, confirmed that extremist groups are still active in Brazil:
Não descartamos nenhuma hipótese. Eu tenho algumas ressalvas com essa expressão do lobo solitário. Ainda que a ação visível seja individual, por trás dessa ação, nunca há só uma pessoa, há sempre um grupo ou ideias de um grupo ou extremismos e radicalismos que levam ao cometimento desses delitos.
We aren't discarding any hypothesis. I have a few reservations with this term ‘lone wolf.’ Even if only one individual is visible, behind this action, there is never only one person, but a group or ideas from a group or extremism and radicalism that lead them to commit the offenses.
Almost two years after the January 8th attacks and with former president Bolsonaro on the verge of being denounced for his participation, politicians that support him have been trying to grant amnesty for all those involved in the attacks. They had tried to bargain for this in the recent election for the presidency of the Lower Chamber.
Bolsonaro himself cannot run for any public position until 2030 after being charged for a meeting where he attacked the electoral system and accused it of fraud without presenting any evidence in front of a group of ambassadors just before the 2022 elections. His passport is also retained by the Federal Police due to other investigations linked to him.
Throughout his presidency, the former president regularly gave speeches portraying the Supreme Court and its justices as enemies. The day after the latest attack, on November 14th, he issued a statement calling it “a sad episode” and “an isolated fact,” saying that is “about time for Brazil to cultivate a proper environment so different ideas can be confronted peacefully.”
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in charge of the investigations on digital militias, the January 8 attacks, and now the explosions, said the context that led to this latest attack began back then when the infamous hate cabinet incited hate speech against Brazilian institutions, its servants, and their families. Last year, the judge himself was harassed by bolsonaristas at an airport in Rome while traveling with his family.
Isso foi se avolumando sob o falso manto de uma criminosa utilização da liberdade de expressão. Ofender, ameaçar, coagir, em nenhum lugar do mundo isso é liberdade de expressão, isso é crime. Isso foi se agigantando e resultou, a partir da tentativa de descrédito das instituições, no 8 de janeiro.
It swelled under the fake guise of a criminal use of free speech. Offending, threatening, coercing, nowhere in the world is this considered freedom of expression; it is a crime. It was growing, and resulted in an attempt to discredit the institutions on January 8th.
Moraes was also adamantly opposed to the possibility of an amnesty deal. He claimed an amnesty for criminals wouldn't allow a peace process and that “an amnestied criminal is an unpunished criminal.”
At the time of writing this story, President Lula hadn't spoken publicly about the attack. He was at Alvorada Palace, the presidential residence, when the explosions started.
On November 18th, Brazil will welcome world leaders to Rio de Janeiro for the G-20 summit, an annual gathering of international leaders and stakeholders. Given the attacks, officials are already considering how to further reinforce the city's security scheme.
