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The protests in Brazil have fallen out of the headlines a bit in the last few days and
a couple of subscribers have asked us to go back to the story and take a look at recent
events and what the protests have actually achieved. So here you go.
So the protests actually started a couple of weeks ago against rising bus fares and
the cost of hosting of the world cup next year and the Olympics in 2016. For many Brazilians
coping with transport costs is already incredibly difficult so even a seemingly small rise in
bus fares of 20 cents is actually a big deal.
The protesters argue that instead of channeling the equivalent of 16 billion quid into the
sporting events that money could be better spent on education, healthcare and other public
services. But there have also been allegations of political corruption, that high profile
figures have been lining their pockets rather than looking out for the people. Then there's
PEC 37 - a promised piece of legislation that would limit the powers of federal prosecutors
to investigate crimes which protesters say would make it harder to crackdown on political
corruption. Now there have been widespread protests across the country in fact last week
it's thought that more than a million people were marching through the streets in protest
in over 100 cities across the country. More than 100,000 people came out in the Porto
do Recife streaming down one of the main roads through the city and in a slightly bizarre
turn of events a group of policemen actually came out in support of the protesters in that
same crowd. But that's an exception rather than the rule at most of the protests the
police have been far more confrontational using rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse
everyone. There have been widespread allegations that the police have been heavy handed even
brutal in their approach.
One of the slogan you'll hear a lot is Sem ViolĂȘncia or 'Without Violence' and for the
vast majority of the protests that's been true. But there have been outbreaks of violence.
Criminals have been capitalising on the disorder to carry out robberies and the first deaths
during the protests happened in the last few days. Crowds surrounded this SUV for two minutes
in the state of Sao Paulo blocking its route. The driver then reversed out slowly before
flooring it straight into the people in front. A number of people were injured in this shocking
incident and an 18-year-old man was actually killed. Two more people died in a similar
incident near the capital Brasilia and a 54-year-old woman has died of a heart attack in the city
of Belem in the Amazon after she inhaled tear gas. Violent incidents have been increasing
with the few attacks on police, cases of vandalism and even arson. Most of the violence from
protesters has been focused on government buildings, bus company property and buses
themselves. But it's still a minority doing this with initial organisers saying that they've
been hijacked. The majority have actually been trying to calm the violence arguing that
destroying public buildings and buses is counter intuitive and will end up costing the tax
payers even more money and that's part of the problem for the protesters in Brazil because
the whole thing could actually backfire on them. A lot of the protests have been focused
around Football Stadia. The confederation cup is being held in Brazil at the moment
and there were reports that footballs governing body FIFA would demand compensation if it
was disrupted or if players were put in danger. Now the same is being said about the World
Cup although FIFA has just dismissed concerns that it may have to be delayed, cancelled
or moved saying it will definitely be held on time in Brazil. But if it were to be disrupted
and compensation was to be claimed then the protest would have contributed to it costing
even more. Some people have also accused the protesters of being too short-termist saying
that these protests will actually put tourists off coming to the country during the competition
and that that will cost them a huge amount of money. But is that really a reason not
to protest? Will any of the money generated by these sporting uber events held in the
country actually filter down to the Brazilian people? For years now Brazil's got a miracle
economy with incredible GDP growth and rapidly expanding industries but has any of that money
filtered down to the people who are struggling to pay for their bus fares and to cope with
the rising cost of living?
But perhaps they are forcing change. Today Brazil's leader Dilma Rousseff has promised
a series of reforms on education, health, public transport investment, fiscal responsibility
and forming a constituency assembly to make sure that reforms are put into practice. So
it could be that there's genuine change coming in Brazil or it could just be that the politicians
there have decided to try and buy themselves some time and space with this announcement.
There's a hell of a lot going on in Brazil at the moment. We'll do out best to try and
keep up with everything and let you guys know about it. In the mean time there's a couple
of videos over there that you can watch and there's also a big subscribe button up there
if you haven't pressed it already please do.