Damage by rioters at the supreme court building AMANDA PEROBELLI/REUTERS
Instead, with that building wrecked on 8 January by thousands of far-right extremists, she sat in her office overlooking Brazil's similarly ransacked congress, reflecting on the stunning attempt to overthrow one of the world's biggest democracies.
"It was truly frightening ... such insanity," said the politician who hails from the Amazon and worked as a cleaner and nanny before becoming a leading Indigenous activist.
"They say they are patriots who are fighting for Brazil ... [but] this is terrorism ... and this was engineered by people with economic and political power," Guajajara said, as her government tried to identify those behind the most serious outbreak of political violence since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.
In the days since the insurrection - a week after the leftist veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office - the scale of the alleged plot to overthrow Brazil's democracy has become clear.
Lula's administration has accused hardcore supporters of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, of attempting to stage a coup. They believe it was aimed at encouraging security forces to rise up, allowing Bolsonaro to return from the US - where he has been since the eve of Lula's 1 January inauguration - to retake power.
Last Thursday, federal police reportedly found a document in the wardrobe of Bolsonaro's former justice minister, Anderson Torres, which allegedly outlined a plan for the former president to seize control of the supreme electoral court to overturn October's election, which Lula won by more than 2m votes.
"Brazilian democracy has been unquestionably tarnished and is at risk," the commentator Mauro Paulino said on the GloboNews television network.
Denne historien er fra January 20, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra January 20, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Starlink's conquest of the Amazon leaves Brazil in a dilemma
The helicopter swooped into one of the most inaccessible corners of the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian special forces commandos leaped from it into the caiman-inhabited waters below.
Dalai Lama's mountain town feels the strain of tourist boom
SUVs and saloon cars pass slowly along McLeod Ganj's narrow one-way Jogiwara Road, blaring horns at pedestrians and scooter riders and playing loud music.
'I am all the world' The brutal rule of a West Bank settler
Palestinians tell ofblacklisted Yakov's reign across the Jabal Salman valley and heisjust one of many violent bosses
Stormy waters New flashpoint emerges in South China Sea dispute
Hopes that tensions in the South China Sea might ease have been short lived.
'Justice delayed' Why trust in public inquiries to bring closure is fading
After the final report of the Grenfell fire inquiry was published, Hisam Choucair, who lost six family members in the blaze, said: \"We did not ask for this inquiry... It's delayed the justice my family deserves.\"
Celeriac soup with almond pangrattato
I'm not ashamed to say that as soon as September hits, my stick blender comes out. Just as I embrace salads when the clocks go forward in the UK, I wholeheartedly throw myself into soup season once the summer holidays end. Autumn is approaching in the northern hemisphere and I'm ready with my ladle. Celeriac is one of my favourite soup heroes, because it gives the creamiest, silkiest finish with little effort. You don't have to make the almond pangrattato, but it is a wonderful addition.
Are smoke signals telling me to make an oil change in the kitchen?
Should you that is, not can you) cook with extra-virgin olive oil? Antonio, Atlanta, Georgia, US
Going underground
A darkly humorous encounter between an American spy-cop and the members ofan eco-commune she is hired to infiltrate
All work and no play
Hard Graft, a powerfulnew London exhibition, focuses onworkers’ exploitation, from the ruined hands ofa washerwoman to mothers forced to sell their bodies
What the princess and the shaman tell us about hereditary privilege
It should have been an Instagram-perfect wedding image, but it turned out to be something more embarrassing.