Biden urged to extradite Bolsonaro after his supporters storm Brazil’s government buildings

The attack Sunday on government buildings in Brasilia followed Bolsonaro’s decision to skip the inauguration of his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and flew to the U.S. instead, where he has been staying in suburban Orlando.

The actions of Bolsonaro and his backers came as little shock to analysts who have been following the former army captain who has often praised Brazil’s past era of military dictatorship.

“Bolsonaro ran on a very Trump-like ticket,” Todd Landman, professor of political science at the University of Nottingham in England, told NBC News. “He looked to Trump as a person to imitate. He also raised doubts about the integrity of the electoral process well in advance.”

After his defeat to Lula in October, Bolsonaro didn’t explicitly concede.

His supporters had been camping in front of military bases for months, calling for the army’s intervention. On Sunday, days after Lula’s inauguration, thousands donning the iconic yellow and green color of the national flag stormed and then trashed several government buildings.

Biden tweeted that the riots were an “assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil,” and that he looked forward to working with Lula. His condemnation was joined by other countries, including the U.K, France, Australia, Spain and Italy.

NBC News reached out to the White House for comment on congressional Democrats’ demands for Biden to remove Bolsonaro.

But despite the growing calls from lawmakers in Washington, experts said any decision to remove Bolsonaro from the U.S. may not be swift.

“They would have to have uncontroversial evidence that there’s a direct link or a set of explicit instructions that came from Bolsonaro to carry this out,” said Landman.

If Biden doesn’t choose to revoke his visa, Brazil may formally seek his extradition after issuing an arrest warrant. Bolsonaro’s visa status was not immediately clear.