Riot police rushing towards peaceful protesters chanting “no violence”.
Image from video by PByFOOL
Tens of thousands of Brazilians have taken to the streets across 11 cities over the last five days to protests against rising public bus fares and continued police brutality.
The protests began over a R$0.20 (£0.06) price hike in the cost of bus fares in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but after the police used violent techniques to suppress the protests, the numbers of protesters have swelled and the demonstrations spread across the country. The police used rubber bullets and tear gas against the peaceful protesters, and the clashes left 120 activists and journalists injured.
Demonstrations in opposition to public transport price hikes have now morphed into protests reflecting more general anti-government and anti-police sentiments. Many are protesting against continued police brutality, whilst others have taken to the streets to question the government’s motives behind spending millions in preparing the country for hosting the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, rather than spending the money on public health and lifting people out of poverty.
Some protesters took their complaints directly to the politicians, by climbing onto the roof of Congress in the capital Brasilia, whilst others attempted to gain the interest of international media by hacking the website for the upcoming world cup and replacing it with protests videos showing police brutality.
Brazil may be a country famed for parties and football, but it is also the sixth biggest economy in the world and faces endemic social inequality and large-scale bureaucratic corruption. Both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have become some of the most expensive cities in the world, with huge mounts of wealth in the hands of the few, whilst the large numbers of poor do not have access to good schools or hospitals.
