300,000 protesters took to the streets in Rio. Still from AJE/YouTube video
More than a million people took to the streets across more than 100 cities in Brazil last night as the anti-government demonstrations continued.
Many of the country’s top politicians appear to be in shock at the scale of the protests, at a time when Brazil’s economy is growing rapidly with many people lifted out of poverty over the last decades. A rise in bus fares may have been the catalyst for the protests, but reasons behind these demonstrations are much broader and include corruption within the government, police violence and repression, poor public services, and the cost of the upcoming World Cup in 2014.
The bus fare price hike may have been reversed, but people have wider concerns, and mass protests at a time when Brazil is under the international spotlight amplifies their message. These protesters tend to be young, with some form of higher education, and no political party. Similar to the protests in Turkey and other locations around the globe, they are protests of a general dissatisfaction with the growing inequalities in society from a group that has grown up with the internet and mass communication.
Local media reported that more than 300,000 people took to the streets in Rio in a carnival atmosphere. The police sealed off the state legislature building, the state governor’s office, Guanabara Palace and the mayor’s office, and fired rubber bullets and tear gas at masked men who were approaching City Hall, with around 30 people injured in clashes.
The first casualty of the demonstrations, which have now continued for more than a week, was reported in São Paulo when a motorist drove through a barricade and struck a protester before fleeing the scene. More than 100,000 people had gathered on the city’s landmark Avenida Paulista.
The current unrest in Brazil is the biggest for more than two decades, when people were pushing for the impeachment of then-President Fernando Collor de Mello.
