After Thwarting a Bomb Attack, Brazilian Police Secure a Backpack Found Near the House of President Elect Lula

Luiz Inacio CLA da Silva. (Wikimedia Commons/Senado Federal)

JAKARTA - Police in Brazil's capital Brasilia said on Tuesday that a backpack was found near the residence of President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sparking a bomb scare, although it was later found to only contain personal items.

News of the bomb squad being called into action just days before Lula took office underscored the uneasy mood in Brasilia after the fiercest election in a generation.

Political tensions in the capital have prompted Lula's team to strengthen security protocols ahead of Sunday's inauguration, Justice Minister Flavio Dino said Monday.

On Tuesday, Dino said the transition team would ask the Supreme Court to suspend the transport of firearms in Brasilia for the next few days.

Since Bolsonaro began relaxing gun laws in 2019, the number of registered gun owners has jumped sixfold to around 700.000.

"We will ask Judge Alexandre de Moraes to suspend the transport of firearms in the Federal District between tomorrow (Wednesday) and January 2 or 3," Dino told reporters.

"The aim is that even people who have permits... have this suspension by court order, so any carrying (of a firearm) within this period will be considered a crime," he said.

Earlier, Brasilia police said they had foiled a bomb plot, arresting a man with ties to an election-denying group supporting incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro camping outside the army headquarters, which had urged the military to overturn Lula's December 24 victory.

George Washington Sousa, who confessed to making the device and conspiring with other camp residents to detonate it, said he hoped the bomb would "provoke military intervention to prevent the installation of communism in Brazil."

In early December, a group from the camp attempted to storm federal police headquarters after the arrest of a pro-Bolsonaro indigenous leader for alleged anti-democratic threats.