Brazil’s Federal Highway Police (PFR) announced Thursday that all federal highways are free of total blockades after four days of protests by supporters of outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
«All federal highways free of blockades,» reported the PFR on the social network Twitter, where it detailed that it has undone 936 protests and that there are still 24 demonstrations that only partially block some lane on a highway.
According to the latest report of the Brazilian authorities, three states continue with partial bans on federal highways: Mato Grosso, Pará and Rondônia.
Protests have been ongoing since former president Lula’s victory in Sunday’s elections. His rival, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, spoke out on Tuesday after more than 48 hours in silence, without talking about his defeat and stressing only that he would comply with the Constitution.
In his brief statement, the leader of the Brazilian ultra-right rejected those who have branded him as «anti-democratic» over the years and assured to have always moved «within the four lines of the Constitution».
Although he described the road blockades as a manifestation of «indignation» and «injustice» because of «how the electoral process was carried out», he asked that they take place in a «peaceful» manner to make it clear that they do not act like the left, whose methods «always harmed the population». On Wednesday, he published a video calling on his supporters to clear the obstructed roads.
«I want to appeal to them: clear the roads, this is not, in my opinion, part of these legitimate demonstrations. Here we are not going to lose our legitimacy (…) Protest in other ways, in other places, that this is very welcome, it is part of our democracy,» Bolsonaro said, as reported by ‘Folha de S.Paulo’.
The Supreme Court judge, Alexandre de Moraes, endorsed that the state security forces could be deployed to collaborate in the tasks that, theoretically, correspond to the PRF, which depends on the central government.
