Protester killed, dozens injured as Brazil police face off with a million in 100 cities.
An 18-year-old protester has been killed and dozens injured as massive protests continue in Brazil's cities. Over a million people have flooded the streets of the country on Thursday.
One person has been killed and three more injured after they were hit by a car in the town of Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo state.
Witnesses say that the car tried to break a human chain created by protesters. Apparantly outraged because he was being blocked, the driver accelerated the vehicle and ran over the four.
Three people were taken to hospital with fractures, one of them in serious condition. Delefrate Marcos, 18, died at the scene.
An 18-year-old protester has been killed and dozens injured as massive protests continue in Brazil's cities. Over a million people have flooded the streets of the country on Thursday.
One person has been killed and three more injured after they were hit by a car in the town of Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo state.
Witnesses say that the car tried to break a human chain created by protesters. Apparantly outraged because he was being blocked, the driver accelerated the vehicle and ran over the four.
Three people were taken to hospital with fractures, one of them in serious condition. Delefrate Marcos, 18, died at the scene.
Mass protests continue throughout Brazil this week as hundreds of thousands assemble in the main cities of Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro with no sign of subsiding even as governments reverse course on planned public transit fare hikes.
Throngs of demonstrators clogged the main streets of major cities, and assembled in smaller municipalities across the country, matching or even exceeding the numbers seen earlier in the week, when hundreds of thousands came out nationwide.
In Rio, authorities expected as many as a million protesters, despite recent announcements by state governments that they would scrap plans to increase public transportation costs.
The planned fare hikes, which had been the initial catalyst of the protests that have now rocked Brazil since Monday, seem to have become a sidenote as protesters now carry placards demanding the government address chronic corruption and other issues.
On Wednesday, some 30,000 demonstrators clashed with riot police in the northern city of Fortaleza hours before Brazil was set to face off against Mexico in a Confederations Cup match. Online, a video asking for international visitors to boycott Brazil’s World Cup went viral, and even Brazilian football legend Pele managed to find himself amidst controversy after seemingly flippant comments directed at the mass protests.
“Let's forget all this commotion happening in Brazil, all these protests, and let's remember how the Brazilian squad is our country and our blood," Pele was quoted as saying by TV network O Globo, which has been the subject of criticism over its coverage of the protest movement.
Brazilians were quick to mock Pele’s comments, which mirrored those made a day prior by a FIFA official in response to a near-riot in Fortaleza which sought to distance the sport from the public unrest.
Anger about a hike in public transport fares has spiralled into a wider movement demanding an end to government corruption -- one fueled by resentment over the $15 billion cost of staging the Confederations Cup and next year's World Cup.
On Thursday, President Dilma Rousseff's office announced that she would cancel a trip to Japan on June 26-28 in response to the unrest. Both the federal and municipal governments of the country seemed to be struggling to respond to the nationwide protests, which are both unusual for the country and seemingly apolitical in nature.
A poll of protesters conducted by Folha de São Paulo found that 71 per cent of Brazilians were taking part in a demonstration for the first time, and 77 per cent had gone through higher education, the latter figure reflecting the burgeoning middle class in South America’s biggest economic power and the world’s seventh-largest.
Among the demands made by the demonstrations are higher funding for education and health services, as well as cuts to public officials' salaries.
Brazilians have even lashed out at the country’s media, such as Globo TV, which some say is either belittling or playing down the numbers of people showing up on the streets.
"Globo always manipulates facts and tries to put the demonstrators in a bad light, focusing on the vandalism of a few hooligans," said Leitane Luranque to the AFP, one of thousands demonstrators at Monday's rally in Sao Paulo.
"And they consistently underestimate the number of demonstrators," added Luranque.
Brazil
Mass protests continue throughout Brazil this week as hundreds of thousands assemble.
Mass protests continue throughout Brazil this week as hundreds of thousands assemble.
