Fact check: Picture of Brazilian ‘QAnon shaman’ copycat from 2021
The claim: Photo shows a copycat ‘QAnon shaman’ at Brazil’s Jan. 8 insurrection
A Jan. 9 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) features side-by-side pictures of the Jan. 6 “QAnon shaman” and a similar-looking man wearing yellow and green body paint. Both are wearing headdresses with horns.
“Ain’t no way Brazil got their own QAnon shaman too,” reads text within the image. “The parallel between the Jan. 6 riots vs the Brazil Jan. 8 riots got me crying.”
The post garnered more than 600 likes in a day. Similar versions of the claim have been shared on Twitter and Instagram.
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Our rating: False
The picture predates the Jan. 8 riots in Brazil by more than a year. It was captured at a 2021 Independence Day rally in Sao Paulo, Brazil and shared on Instagram by a Brazilian journalist.
Picture dates back to 2021
The social media post attempts to connect Brazil’s recent insurrection and the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots.
On Jan. 8, supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and ransacked several government buildings in Brazil’s capital. In an echo of the rioters who violently stormed the U.S. capitol, the insurrection in Brazil was fueled by a refusal to accept the country’s recent election results.
Fact check roundup:Debunking false narratives about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot two years later
But the picture of the Brazilian man was taken in 2021 during an Independence Day rally in Sao Paulo – not during the Jan. 8 riots.
Brazilian journalist Cecília Oliveira originally shared the picture on Instagram on Sept. 7 and referenced Jake Angeli, the so-called “QAnon shaman” from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, in her caption.
Following this, the picture was included in an article published by the Argentinian outlet Página 12.
A similar picture of the man was featured in a 2021 BBC article, which reported that Bolsonaro drew a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters in Sao Paulo. In response to several investigations and calls for his impeachment, Bolsonaro announced that “only God would remove him from power.”
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment.
This claim has been debunked by PolitiFact and Reuters as well.
Our fact-check sources:
- Cecilia Oliveira, Sept. 7, 2021, Instagram post
- BBC, Sept. 8, 2021, Brazil’s Bolsonaro: Only God will remove me from power
- USA TODAY, Nov. 17, 2021, Jake Angeli, aka QAnon shaman, sentenced to 41 months in Jan. 6 Capitol riot
- Página 12, Sept. 8, 2021, The game of 7 differences: the similarities between the far-right Bolsonaristas and the Qanon trumpists
- USA TODAY, Jan. 9, Brazil investigates after storming of Congress by backers of Bolsonaro, known as ‘Trump of Tropics’
- USA TODAY, Jan. 4, 2021, Fact check roundup: Debunking false narratives about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot two years later
- PolitiFact, Jan. 9, Viral photo of copycat ‘QAnon shaman’ in Brazil wasn’t taken during 2023 riots
- Reuters, Jan. 10, Fact Check-Photograph of man likened to ‘QAnon Shaman’ not related to Jan. 8 riots in Brazil
- Newsweek, Jan. 9, Fact Check: Was ‘QAnon Shaman’ Spotted at Brazil Congress Invasion?
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