Brazilian protest

Brazil: authorities deploy 8,000 police as Rio de Janeiro braces for protests

Authorities in Rio de Janeiro ramped up police manpower more than tenfold as Brazil braced itself for another night of protest.

The Guardian,

20 June, 2013

On Thursday afternoon in the centre of the city, shops pulled down shutters as a crowd of several thousand started to gather next to the cathedral, hundreds of them wearing plastic Guy Fawkes masks. With many more expected in the coming hours, helicopters buzzed overhead, police armed with shotguns rode past on motorbikes and roads were blocked off.
 

But the atmosphere was festive, with music and chanting from the mostly young middle-class crowd. The wide variety of banners showed how this movement has been a magnet for frustrations that have simmered under the surface for many years: "Stop corruption. Change Brazil", "Come to the street. It's the only place we don't pay taxes", "Government failure to understand education will lead to revolution", "We want to change everything wrong in our country", "Stop police violence" – Seemingly the only common theme was a desire for change.

"There are no politicians who speak for us," said Jamaime Schmitt, an engineer. "This is not just about bus fares any more. We pay high taxes and we are a rich country, but we can't see this in our schools, hospitals and roads."

With a far heavier police presence than at a previous demonstration on Monday and more protesters expected, some participants acknowledged they felt nervous. "I'm a little worried someone might let off a home-made bomb," said Gabriel Matos, a teacher at a private school. "But I want to be here. This demonstration proves we have power." After vastly underestimating the scale of the march on Monday that was largely peaceful but ended with fire and vandalism outside the legislative assembly, police say they have increased on-duty personnel and placed a battalion of riot police on standby.

The military police spokesman for Rio state, Frederico Caldas, estimates that 8,000 police will be involved in a dual operation to handle the demonstration in the centre of the city and security for the Spanish and Tahiti football teams to and from the Maracanã stadium where they are playing in the Confederations Cup. Police cordoned off the stadium blocking access to protesters during the game. Only ticket-holders were allowed to enter.

The number includes 1,200 riot police who will remain in barracks unless the demonstration turns violent. They will be armed with teargas and rubber bullets, but the authorities say they will only be used in extreme cases.

"We hope it will not be necessary to call on this battalion," another spokesman told the Guardian. "Rubber bullets are a last resort."

The increase of personnel comes after the police admitted they misjudged the scale of Monday's march, when only 150 officers were on duty to handle a crowd of more than 100,000.

Thursday's demonstration will be the biggest test of a high-tech police command centre, inaugurated last month, that includes a giant screen with images from hundreds of cameras around the city. For the march on Thursday night, helicopters with high-resolution imaging will also monitor the crowd, but the police denied rumours that drones would be used.

"There will be no drones in this operation. That is a false rumour. We don't even have a law that allows drones," said the spokesman.

Among the preventative measures, police were said to have begun monitoring social media networks to anticipate plans for gatherings. The Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, meanwhile, mapped what it said were protests in around 90 cities across the country.

Protest organisers are hoping that Thursday's march will be the biggest yet in a nationwide wave of unrest unmatched in more than two decades. On Monday, a quarter of a million people took to the streets in at least 12 cities. Since then, tens of thousands have also marched for the past two nights in São Paulo and there has been a 10-hour demonstration in Belo Horizonte.

There have also been peaceful demonstrations in other cities as well violent clashes in Fortaleza between police – using teargas and rubber bullets – and protesters trying to enter the perimeter around a stadium where Brazil played Mexico in the Confederations Cup.

The spark for smaller demonstrations last week was a rise in public transport fares. After those protests were brutally handled by police, the unrest has since escalated and spread to include a long list of grievances, including corruption, poor public services and the high cost of stadiums being built for the Confederations Cup and next year's World Cup.

Initially caught off guard, the authorities have switched from repression to conciliation. President Dilma Rousseff has praised the protesters and on Wednesday, the mayors of São Paulo and Rio announced a U-turn on the fare increase.

But this has yet to mollify an amorphous movement that has been gaining in momentum and overshadowed the Confederations Cup.

The country's most famous footballer, Pelé, called on protesters to focus on football rather than street demonstrations.

"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," Pelé said in a brief broadcast via the O Globo TV network also posted online. However, many online commentators have derided his appeal along with a similar call on Thursday from FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

UPDATE FROM RT:

Brazil has entered a second week of mass protests, with hundreds of thousands turning out in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia and elsewhere. Unrest left at least 100 injured and resulted in over 250 arrests on Monday.

22:45 GMT: Police fired large rounds of tear gas against protesters in the city of Campinas in Sao Paulo state in a confrontation adjacent to government buildings.

A Globo TV correspondent reported a tense situation as demonstrators faced off against riot gear-clad officers.

22:03 GMT: Police in Rio de Janeiro have already resorted to tear gas early Thursday evening to disperse a crowd making its way to city hall. Plumes of smoke could be seen on video broadcast by local TV.

Authorities in Brazil's cultural capital expect as many as a million protesters to converge on the city, despite recent announcements by state governments to scrap plans to increase public transportation costs. Protesters intended to march on Maracana Stadium just as a Confederations cup football game was to kick off.