Something positive from the protests

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(82 years old, I didn’t come to play around. I came to protest)

Aside from the whole of Brazil, both young and old, waking up and taking to the streets, a few good things are coming from all the protests. Surely, there’s many more good deeds than the few things I listed below so, if you know of any, leave them in the comments and I’ll add them to this post.

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- 11 Brazilian cities promised to lower bus fares as a result of the protests. Cuiabá and Recife reduced theirs by R$0.10, João Pessoa, Porto Alegre and Goiânia are cancelling their planned increase. Curitiba, Manaus, Natal and Vitória reduced their bus fares by a percentage while Blumenau and Caxias do Sul said they would review the process/prices. Meanwhile, in São Paulo, where it all started, Mayor Haddad said he might, depending on further review, bring the fares back down to R$3 from R$3.20. In Rio, Mayor Paes said he is looking to meet with protest leaders and hopes to freeze bus fares at R$2.75. – Source (PT)

- On Tuesday night on Avenida Paulista, in a show of solidarity, police officers were met with much applause when they sat with activists. (Video below)

- Fabrício Ferreira is the guy who watched (PT) his car being set on fire by some hoodlums in the middle of a (mostly) peaceful protest on Monday in Rio de Janeiro. The car was an uninsured ’93 Ford but Fabrício was still making payments on it. Inside the car were many pieces of lingerie that his wife was going to sell. The cost in damages was around R$6,000, and that’s when Brazilian Facebook members decided to do a “vaquinha” (to chip in) to help…but it wasn’t necessary, being that Pedro Augusto, host of a show on Rádio Tupi was moved by the story and decided to take over the debt, reimburse the owner for the burned lingerie and give him a brand new car! Fabrício, by the way, works at Rádio Tupi. (Video of the offer below, source, PT)

- Finally, this video is just nice to see. Brazilians in the Pinheiros metro station in São Paulo singing the national anthem.

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Added

- A female police commander was isolated and in the midst of the Belo Horizonte protesters when a few good men, also protesters, escorted her to safety. I hope the same would have occurred had she been male.

Brazil’s biggest protests in 21 years

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“On Monday the 17th, more than 230,000 people took to the streets to protest in some of the main Brazilian cities, like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte and Brasília. The common agenda for all complaints was the increase of the public transport fares, but insatisfaction with corruption, World Cup construction and the precariousness of public services — like health and education — reinforced the might of the movement. It was the largest popular mobilization in Brazil since 1992, when the population asked for the impeachment of then-President Fernando Collor de Mello.

In Belo Horizonte, the protest was the first to start. The movement started at 1pm in the Praça Sete de Setembro, in the capital city’s downtown area, with the end point at the Mineirão stadium, almost 9 kilometers away. On the way, the crowd of 15,000 people quickly took over Afonso Pena Avenue, one of the main avenues in the city. In spite of being peaceful most of the time, the protest got violent. There was a confrontation with the Military Police (MP) due to the police not wanting to let the protesters end up at Mineirão, one of the Confederations Cup locations. When the group advanced down Antônio Abrahão Caram Avenue, which leads to the stadium, the confrontation started, around 4pm. In the widespread rioting, the MP used tear gas bombs and rubber bullets to contain the protesters, who reacted by throwing rocks at the police. One person was injured upon falling off the overpass and was taken to the Risoleta Neves Hospital, in Venda Nova.

The newspaper Estado de Minas published an official report from the MP according to which 5 protesters were arrested and 3 were injured in Belo Horizonte. According to the newspaper, the MP denied having started the confrontations, but admitted to using rubber bullets against the state government’s recommendation. These shots, according to the MP, were fired in a way that they “hit the targets below the waist.”

In Brasília, the protests started peaceful in the afternoon and started to look more like war by nightfall. The ramp of the Congress building was taken over by thousands of protesters, the majority being teenagers. In the confusion, one of the building’s windows was broken. They had already occuppied the dome platform and, a little after, arrived at the principal access point of the Legislative House. The invasion via the principal entrance was dispersed by police, with tear gas and pepper spray. Positioned in front of the “millnery” of the Congress building, the protesters shouted: “hey, soldier, come to our side”. The MP confirmed that 10,000 people participated in the “Vinagre March”. Close to 500 police officers were on the scene to contain the crowd.

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In Rio de Janeiro, 100,000 people — according to the MP estimates — peacefully occupied the Carioca Capital’s downtown area, from where they walked to the Legislative Assembly, where a small group got involved in a fight after a bomb went off on Araújo Porto Alegre Street, around the Brazilian Press Association. A car parked near the ALERJ building exploded after being set on fire by protesters. According to the MP, a group of young people tried to invade the Assembly building. Police from the Shock Battalion used rubber bullets, gas bombs and pepper spray to contain the protesters.

At the São Paulo protests, more than 65,000 peopple (according to Datafolha’s estimates) met up at the Large da Batata, in the West Zone, from where they left, in two large groups, via Brigadeiro Faria Lima Avenue and via the Marginal Pinheiros, two of the principal avenues of the city. The two groups split up and passed some of the cities main areas, such as Paulista Avenue, the stage of the protests in previous days; the Estaiada bridge, Ibirapuera Avenue, the Legislative Assembly building and the Bandeirantes Palace, seat of the government. Part of the protesters tried to invade the official governor’s residence, but ended up giving up in the face of the police presence and also due to the objections of some of the protesters.

Attempts to invade the Piratini (Porto Alegre) and Iguaçú (Curitiba) palaces were also recorded, in addition to the Legislative Assembly building in Rio Grande do Sul. In all the cases, the MP used force to disperse the few violent protesters. In Curitiba, the MP estimated there were 10,000 protesters. In Porto Alegre, there were 5,000. There were even large protests in Belém, where 13,000 people got together and in Salvador, where 10,000 protesters met up. Other capital cities that saw protests include Fortaleza, Vitória and Maceió, where a 16 year old was shot in the face. The suspect is the driver of a car that was blocked by protesters. Protests occurred in various other cities of the country as well, such as Foz do Iguaçu (PR), Londrina (PR), Bauru (SP), Santos (SP), and Juiz de Fora (MG).” – Source (PT)

More photos here. Map of protest cities here (with scrollable new links).

São Paulo and Rio have the highest bus fares

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Continuing my coverage of the São Paulo protests, here’s a piece by Folha on research regarding bus fares across 12 cities.

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The infographic relates to how many minutes the citizen of each of the 12 cities listed above has to work in order to afford the bus. It was likely done in multiples of 100, as opposed to 60 (seconds/minutes), for calculation purposes.

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“Last week was marked by the protests against bus fare increases throughout the country; it seems the protests originating in São Paulo are writing a chapter for the history books.

But is it possible that our bus fares are so expensive? We researched the price of bus fares in 10 cities around the world and compared them with Rio and São Paulo, where the protests were the most intense. Many analyses look at the prices in the local currency and convert them into dollars. These results show the same conclusion: Brazil is far from being the place with the most expensive fares — São Paulo and Rio are the cheapest, compared to those of London, Tokyo, Ottawa, New York, Lisbon, Paris and Madrid.

This type of analysis is superficial because it doesn’t take into account the average wage; in other words, one dollar in one country being easier to earn than in another. A more correct approach is to take into account the price of the fare in minutes worked, considering, therefore, the average wage and the hours worked in each city. Upon classifying the prices by the wages, São Paulo and Rio have the highest bus fares.

The resident of São Paulo has to work 14 minutes to pay to use the bus. For a resident of Rio, it’s 13 minutes. They’re higher than the 4 minutes worked by Chinese citizens. Perhaps the protesters aren’t actually against the R$ 0.20 increase in the bus fare, but rather they’re against a means of transport that doesn’t measure up to what can be found around the world.

As Enrique Peñalosa, the ex-Mayor of Bogotá, would say, “an advanced city is not one where the poor are using cars, but one where the rich are using public transportation”. What’s happening here seems to be the opposite.” – Source (PT)

“I never thought they’d shoot”

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As the protests continue in São Paulo and erupt in Rio (where the news channels covering the protests had their signals cut in place of covering the soccer game), TV Folha does an excellent job (PT) of showing what’s going on. One of the people interviewed in the video states that the police re/action is due to lack of training and preparation. I’m not sure I buy that, perhaps partially but not fully. If you have a group of photojournalists on the sidelines, throwing no rocks and causing no problems, and they’re being fired upon, what’s lacking is not training, but common sense. And photojournalists are just one example, there are old people getting shot, by-standers, people simply filming from the “safety” of their apartments high above the ground.

It might have started because of 20 cents but it’s really about 20+ years of living in a so-called democracy while being treated like shit.

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For a less professional, non-press video than what’s below, go here. For first and secondhand accounts, go here. The video below has English captions that can be enabled.

The 1958 São Paulo Protests

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In addition to my São Paulo protests post, I translated this article from Estadão’s archives.

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“At the end of November 1958, residents of São Paulo went to sleep with one bus fare and woke up with another. At the end of that day the city went to sleep with four protesters dead, dozens wounded and 150 vehicles destroyed. The bus riders only found out about the readjustment when they found, on the morning of the 30th, announcements on the windshields of the buses and trolleys with the new fare on it. With the increase in the still of the night, the bus fares went from Cr$ 3.50 to Cr$ 5.00, and the trolleys went from Cr$ 2.50 to Cr$ 3.00 (the monetary note of the time was the cruzeiro, with the symbol Cr$). Aware of the possible reactions, the mayor Adhemar de Barros sent armed police to many of the city’s bus stops. On the days of the protests, Barros was in Rio de Janeiro.

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The first reaction by the population was to complain. But at 10:30am news started to arrive about the first bus and trolley paralyzations by students which went throughout the day. The students of the Liceu Pasteur school stopped a trolley on its last stop in Vila and the other was stopped by students of Mackenzie University on Rua Maria Antonia. During the whole of the morning and afternoon the protests were peaceful. To prove it, Mackenzie students set up a chess table in front of a stopped trolley car.

But the paralyzations took a turn during the evening, when there was more need of public transport. The students had already blocked the buses from making their rounds on Avenida São João. At the same time the shop owners were closing their doors, someone shattered the windows of the Olido movie theater. In several parts of the city the protesters emptied the buses, in others, like at the 14 Bis plaza, the fare inspectors of the now-extinct Metropolitana de Transportes Coletivos Company (CMTC) instructed the bus drivers to go back to their garages.

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With the bus stops more and more overcrowded with people, the Civil Guards were sent to disperse the protesters and to free up the circulation of the vehicles at the Praça da Sé and the Praça Clóvis, the two busiest terminals at the time. The soldiers carried with them, aside from real ammunition, blanks and smoke bombs. When the troops from the Guard Battalion and the Cavalry arrived, around 6pm, they were greeted with sticks and stones by the protesters and they couldn’t stop the buses from being destroyed and put on fire. At 9pm, without being able to disperse the crowd, the troops received orders to shoot rounds into the air. The result was 4 dead, three by bullets, and dozens wounded and arrested.

To clear out downtown, the Mayor’s Office had trucks from the Mogiana Company, from the Department of Water and Sewage and the Department of Highways, to transport people free of cost.

Authorities. Only at 9pm, when the movement had dominated the city, did the authorities meet at the Campos Elísios Palace. At the meeting was the governor Carvalho Pinto, chief of staff Quintanilha Ribeiro, and the Secretary of Justice, Pedroso Horta. On the way out of the meeting, on a televised interview, Horta justified the increase with a reminder that one of Adhemar de Barros’ campaign promises was to get  the CMTC finances back on track. And one of these measures would be by increasing the bus fares.

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On the following day, the paralyzations and the police repression continued. This time it was in front of the Prates Palace, the then-seat of the House of Representatives in the D. Pedro II Park. The protesters went there to demand the lowering of the fares. The councilman Monteiro de Carvalho got up on the hood of a car and explained that the issue of fares was the City Hall’s responsibility. The crowd was dispersed around 7pm with the “blows of police batons on their heads”, according to what the Estado newspaper.

Scrapped. The CMTC with 12,000 employees in financial crisis was scrapped, the fleet wasn’t renewed and they weren’t even able to import parts and accessories for the broken buses. In 1957, with a fleet of 1,333 diesel buses, only 821 actually worked. The company also had 110 electric buses and 210 trolleys that hadn’t been taken off their routes due to the incapability to substitute the fleet.” – Source (PT)

For more on the protests in English, go here.

Police violence at São Paulo protests

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The following is an article from Folha which I translated (and added photos, videos and links to).

On Thursday (13th), the police detained at least 235 people on the fourth day of protests against the increase of public transport fares in downtown São Paulo. Of these “suspects”, 198 were taken to the Jardins PD and another 37 to the Liberdade PD. According to the police, in total, 231 were processed and released by the next morning. The four remaining continue imprisoned, without bail, for “forming a gang”. However, the mayor Fernando Haddad said Thursday’s manifestations against bus, metro and train fares were marked by police violence where 7 Folha journalists were also injured (PT).

“Tuesday was marked by protestor violence. Today, unfortunately, there’s no doubt that it was the police that were violent.” He said that on Friday (14th) he’ll be evaluating the measures he’ll take to try to contain the escalation of violence at the protests.

PROTESTS

This is the fourth protest against bus fares in the last week. People started to join together around 4pm, when there was already a strong police presence, which included the closing of the Chá overpass and the frisking of by-passers, near the São Paulo Mayor’s Office. Even before the start of the demonstration, there were already 30 people detained. Among them was the Carta Capital reporter, Piero Locatelli.

The confrontation started when the MPs tried to stop close to 5,000 protesters from continuing the demonstration via Consolação Street, in the direction of Paulista Avenue. With it came tear gas and rubber bullets being dispersed against the crowd which threw rocks and other objects in return.

Some of the tear gas bombs launched by the police ended up in a gas station near Caio Prado Street, while the smoke from the bombs formed a cloud that made the parked cars along the street disappear.

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(a couple beaten just for having beer at a bar)

NEGOTIATIONS

On Wednesday (12th), the São Paulo Prosecutors’ Office met up with the MPL (Free Pass Movement) protestors — organizers of the protests — and promised to set a meeting with the governor and the mayor to negotiate a 45-day suspension of the new hike to R$3.20. Before the increase, the bus, metro and train fare was R$3.

Today, the governor Geraldo Alckmin rejected the possibility of suspending the increase. The Mayor’s Office still hasn’t said if it will accept the proposal either.

“As far as reducing the fare, there’s no way”, said the governor, who was in Santos with the Public Safety Secretary, Fernando Grella, to inaugrate a police station and to announce investments in public safety in the region. “The readjustment was less than the inflation, on the trains, metro and the buses”, said Alckmin.

The Mayor also said he won’t reduce the bus fare. He reaffirmed that the increase of 20 cents was less than the inflation and that he has met his campaign promises.” – Folha (PT)

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CopaFifa = 33 Billion
Olympics = 26 Billion
Corruption = 50 Billion
Min. Wage = 678 Reais
And you still think it’s because of 20 cents???

source

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Two short interviews (PT) with two of the movement’s organizers. In the second, Caio Martins says, “when a demonstration is repressed, an organized act becomes disorganized.”

And what they’re showing on the news (PT),

Here’s what’s happening in Rio (PT) in regards to the increase there.

(Meanwhile, in the US, a 20 cent increase wouldn’t make us protest, but we’re totally fine with losing all our privacy)

Brazil Com S – Portuguese Language Abroad

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“BraZil com S – the Portuguese language spoken outside of Brazil is an unique documentary produced by Brasil em Mente and sponsored by the Brazilian General Consulate of NY. Documentary from 2012. 32 minutes. Rated G.

Participants: Bela Gil, Carlos Saldanha, Lucas Mendes, Luiz Ribeiro, Ambassador Luis Felipe de Seixas Corrêa, Vinicius Dônola, Roberta Salomone, Edison De Michelli, Maria Olinda De Michelli, Francesca Damato, Ana Maria Machado, Sandra Peres and Paulo Tatit, of the musical group Palavra Cantada, Felicia Jennings-Winterle and Patricia Almeida.” – Source (PT)

(It’s basically about the importance of passing Portuguese along to one’s children.)

For a Safer Brazil

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In late June of 2012, the Brazilian Federal government, in conjunction with the State government of Alagoas, launched the Safer Brazil Program (Programa Brasil Mais Seguro) which aimed at lowering violent crime rates in the country. For the pilot program, the Northeastern state of Alagoas was chosen due to the extremely high rates of homicide there. The government’s own data showed a 420% increase in the murder rate over a period of three decades, arriving at 60 homicides per 100 thousand residents.

The program looked at three actionable areas for improvement: the investigation of violent crimes; an increase in patrolling and community outreach; and gun control. Within one month of it kicking off, positive results were already starting to come in.

With an initial investment of R$25 million by the Federal government, earmarked specifically for Alagoas, the local and State police were able to get new equipment, receive more advanced training and install fixed, as well as mobile, video-monitoring bases. The State government, for its part, created job openings with both the civil and military police, opened a new department to deal specifically with homicides and provided bonuses to officers that apprehended weapons.

In just 6 months, Brasil Mais Seguro was able to lower the homicide rate by a whopping 20% (the largest drop in history, country-wide) in Alagoas, and increased the identification of criminals (which found that 80% of them already had rap sheets).

In addition to the main program, a sub-initiative has been launched under it, called Juventude Viva. The new plan is “geared towards youth aged 15 to 29, and hopes to reduce vunerability and deconstruct the culture of violence associated the age range, preventing violence and offering opportunities for social development.”

And if that’s not enough, in light of the sucess of Brasil Mais Seguro, it has also been enacted in the nearby state of Paraíba, with neighboring Rio Grande do Norte just recently following suit (PT).

For the Love of Forró – film

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This great little documentary was made in 2008 by Adriana Caitano and Galton Sé, journalism graduates from the University of Brasília. The film shows the pé-de-serra movement, composed principally of young people from southcentral Brazil who idolize the more traditional forró, disseminated by Luiz Gonzaga in the 50s, and based on the accordian-triangle-bass drum formation. These forró lovers research the musical style, listen to vinyls and get together several times a year in festivals where forró is played 24 hours per day. In the film, three such festivals are shown: Rootstock (SP), RioRoots (RJ) and Festival Nacional de Forró de Itaúnas (ES).

(There are English subtitles but you may have to activate them by clicking the video’s ‘caption’ button on the Youtube site.)