A Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered the arrest on Tuesday of the capital’s most recent public security chief after supporters of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro led a rampage through government buildings.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the arrest of Anderson Torres, who was Bolsonaro’s justice minister before taking over this month as the public security chief for Brasilia, where thousands of protesters vandalized the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential offices on Sunday.
Torres, who was removed from office on Sunday, was not in the city when the riots occurred, having flown to Florida earlier this month. In a post on Twitter on Tuesday, he said he would return to Brazil from Orlando, where he was vacationing with his family, and turn himself in to justice.
Moraes also requested the arrest of Fabio Augusto Vieira, the head of Brasilia’s military police, one of a number of officials responsible for protecting the key Brasilia government buildings. Vieira could not immediately be reached for comment.
Details of the charges leveled against the pair weren’t immediately clear.
In the arrest warrant, Moraes cited their failure to ensure proper security forces were in place. He also cited their authorization of the entrance into the city of more than 100 buses with Bolsonaro supporters on board, and their failure to close down a camp at which the former president’s loyalists had been gathering for months.
