SAO PAULO - About 50,000 protesters returned to the streets of Brazil’s biggest city Tuesday night, a demonstration of anger toward what they call a corrupt and inefficient government that has long ignored the demands of a growing middle class.
The protests were well-organized through social media and mostly peaceful, like those the night before that drew 240,000 to the streets in several cities to demonstrate over the state of public transit, schools and other public services in the booming South American giant. Many railed against a gap between Brazil’s heavy tax burden and its poor infrastructure.
Demonstrations have ballooned from initial protests last week called by a group complaining about the high cost of the public transport system and demanding a rollback of a 10-cent increase in bus and subway fares.
While the protests have grown, reversing the fare increase remains the one concrete demand emanating from the streets. The rest, so far, are expressions of anger and discontentment - not just with the ruling government, but with the entire governing system. A common chant at the rallies has been “No parties!”
“What I hope comes from these protests is that the governing class comes to understand that we’re the ones in charge, not them, and the politicians must learn to respect us,” said Yasmine Gomes, a 22-year-old in the plaza in central Sao Paulo where Tuesday night’s protest began.
Nearby, Bruno Barp, a 23-year-old law student, said he had high hopes for the growing movement.
“The protests are gaining force each day, there is a tremendous energy that cannot be ignored,” Barp said as demonstrators poured into the central plaza.
The Brazilian Tax Planning Institute think tank found that the country’s tax burden in 2011 stood at 36 percent of gross domestic product, ranking it 12th among the 30 countries with the world’s highest tax burdens.
Yet demonstrators are still unhappy with public services such as schools. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found in a 2009 educational survey that literacy and math skills of Brazilian 15-year-olds ranked 53rd out of 65 countries, behind nations such as Bulgaria, Mexico, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, and Romania.
Many protesting in Brazil’s streets are from the country’s growing middle class, which government figures show has ballooned by some 40 million over the past decade during a commodities-driven economic boom.
Protesters say they’ve lost patience with problems such as government corruption and inefficiency. They’re also slamming Brazil’s government for spending billions of dollars to host next year’s World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics while leaving other needs unmet.
A November report from the government raised to $13.3 billion the projected cost of stadiums, airport renovations and other projects for the World Cup. City, state and other local governments are spending more than $12 billion on projects for the Olympics in Rio.
Tuesday’s march in Sao Paulo started out peacefully, but later a small group lashed out at police outside City Hall and tried to invade the building.
Different groups of protesters faced off, one chanting “peace, peace” while trying to form a human cordon to protect the building, the other trying to climb metal poles to get inside.
The air was thick with police pepper spray and smoke after demonstrators set a TV satellite truck and a police lookout booth on fire.
Information for this article was contributed by Jenny Barchfi eld, Marco Sibaja and Jill Langlois of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 06/19/2013