Brazilian football ultras keen to reach away games have been hailed as democratic heroes after breaking through road blockades set up by far-right supporters of president Jair Bolsonaro, who refuse to accept his defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s tightly contested presidential election. Pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators baselessly alleging electoral fraud have been blocking roads and highways across the country since Sunday night, causing chaos, cancelled flights and fears of fuel shortages. On Tuesday morning, Brazil’s supreme court ruled that the federal highway police must immediately take measures to clear the roads. Videos showed that some police officers were encouraging the protests. As of Wednesday morning, the highway police said it had cleared over 600 points of obstruction, while 156 blockades remained on federal highways across the country. But where security forces failed to break up roadblocks, football fans took matters into their own hands. According to the newspaper O Globo, at least four associations of football ultras – known in Brazil as torcidas organizadas – broke through Bolsonarista barricades in the states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná in their efforts to reach Brasileirão games, Brazil’s main football league competition. Members of the Galoucura football fan association of the Atlético Mineiro club cleared the road linking Belo Horizonte to São Paulo ahead of a game on Tuesday between the Minas Gerais club, fondly known as Galo, and the São Paulo football team. Videos circulating online show football fans clearing tires from the road and lorries driving off. “The barricades-busting troop is here,” one man says. “We’re going to see the Galo whatever happens!”. On social media, amused Brazilians thanked the ultras for defending democracy. “I’m in favour of my team losing to Galo today simply for the Galoucura’s contribution to [democratic] institutions,” Vera Magalhães, a São Paulo-supporting journalist who has often been harassed by President Bolsonaro and his supporters, tweeted. The game ended in a 2-2 draw. Meanwhile, the Gaviões do Fiel fans of São Paulo club Corinthians cleared two roadblocks late on Tuesday as they headed from São Paulo to Rio, where they will play Flamengo at the Maracanã stadium on Wednesday evening. After clearing a section of the Marginal Tiête highway in São Paulo, Corinthians fans hung a banner emblazoned with the words “We are for democracy”, while chanting Lula’s name. As well as being the team of President-elect Lula, Corinthians is known for its opposition to Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship with the “Democracia Corintiana” movement led by footballers such as Sócrates and Casagrande. The hardcore Bolsonaro supporters protesting against the election result are demanding a military intervention along the lines of the 1964 military coup. On Wednesday, thousands of Bolsonaristas gathered outside Rio’s eastern military command to voice their outrage at Bolsonaro’s defeat and demand a military takeover. “Armed forces, save Brazil!” some chanted, according to Associated Press. Bolsonaro, who finally broke his post-election silence with the briefest of speeches on Tuesday afternoon, tacitly backed the protesters’ unfounded claims of fraud. “The current popular movements are the fruit of indignation and a feeling of injustice about how the electoral process played out,” he said, while adding that protests cannot impede people’s right to come and go. Bolsonaro refused to recognize Lula’s win in his speech, let alone congratulate his opponent. But in practice Bolsonaro has conceded, ordering his chief of staff to begin the transition process and admitting to the supreme court that the game was up. “It’s over,” he reportedly told supreme court judges during a meeting on Tuesday.