Prosecutors seek to determine whether there was a coordinated plan to take power

After months of tensions over a close presidential election in Brazil, a mob stormed government buildings in the days following the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. WSJ looks at the key moments to understand how and why the riots unfolded. Photo composite: Eve Hartley

BRASÍLIA—It was supposed to have been a peaceful day, though police expected demonstrations on the vast, grassy Esplanade where Brazil’s three branches of power are located.

Adilson Paz said goodbye to his two teenage boys and headed to work as chief of the legislative police at the modernist lower house of Congress. He said he thought he would be home by dark that Sunday, Jan. 8.

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