Brazilian judge orders arrest of Anderson Torres

• Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued an arrest warrant for Anderson Torres.
• President Jair Bolsonaro went on the rampage through government buildings.
• Bolsonaro said he may return to Brazil before the end of the month.

Before taking over this month as the public security director for Brasilia, Anderson Torres served as Justice Minister under Bolsonaro. Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued an arrest warrant for him.

After supporters of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro went on the rampage through government buildings on Tuesday, a judge on the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the capital’s most recent public security chief.

Anderson Torres, who served as Bolsonaro’s justice minister before taking over this month as the public security director for Brasilia, where tens of thousands of protesters vandalised the Supreme Court, Congress, and presidential offices on Sunday, was taken into custody by Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Torres, who was fired from his position on Sunday, had just returned from a trip to Florida and was not present in the city when the disturbances broke out. He promised to return to Brazil from Orlando, where he was vacationing with his family, and hand himself in to law enforcement in a tweet on Tuesday.

Fabio Augusto Vieira, the chief of the military police in Brasilia and one of the personnel in charge of guarding the main Brasilian government buildings, was also the target of Moraes’ request for his arrest. Vieira could not be reached for comment right away.

The specifics of the accusations made against the two were not immediately clear.

The inability to ensure that the right security troops were in place was noted by Moraes in the arrest warrant. Additionally, he mentioned their approval of the entry into the city of over 100 buses carrying Bolsonaro supporters and their failure to disperse a camp where the former president’s followers had been camped out for months.

“One cannot use the excuse of ignorance or incompetence in such a sensitive moment for Brazilian democracy, in which anti-democratic protests are occurring all day long, with the occupation of military buildings across the country, and in Braslia,” Moraes stated in the arrest order, which was previously made public to Reuters by a person familiar with the situation.

Bolsonaro, 67, said he may return to Brazil before the end of the month if his medical concerns force him to shorten his stay there.

On Tuesday, his son, senator Flavio Bolsonaro, refuted claims that the former president was to blame for the violence that took place on Sunday.

He claimed in a Senate session that “after the election outcome, he’s been silent, nursing his wounds, practically incommunicado.”

In light of Sunday’s vandalism, public prosecutors requested on Tuesday that a federal audit court impose a temporary asset freeze on the former president — a step outside the purview of the court’s regular jurisdiction.

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