In what can be considered an uprising against the chain of command, former leaders of Brazil's security forces gave their support to president Jair Bolsonaro's crusade against the country's top tribunal and publicly called for officers to join the demonstrations of September 7 in Brasília and São Paulo.

One of the organizers on social networks is Colonel Aleksander Lacerda, commander of seven battalions of the Military Police of Sao Paulo, who was removed from his post by local governor Joao Doria.

The rally was called by Mr Bolsonaro and his allies after the arrest of ex-lawmaker Roberto Jefferson, a Bolsonaro supporter who had urged people, in a video in which he is seen flashing firearms, to attack the Chinese embassy in Brasilia and the Supreme Federal Court.