The storming of Brazil’s presidential palace, congress and Supreme Court by a mob of several thousand supporters of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday afternoon (Monday AEDT) was dramatic and shocking. But as a coup attempt, it fizzled very fast.

The extremists over-ran the country’s main government buildings with surprising ease, suggesting the possible connivance of some of the security forces tasked with guarding the modernist complex in the heart of the capital Brasilia. But once they had occupied the seats of executive, judicial and legislative power, the protesters did not articulate any plan beyond smashing windows and furniture, damaging artworks and filming one another.

Financial Times