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Brazilian Leaders Brace for New Round of Protests Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders
(about 5 hours later)
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Political leaders here in Brazil’s largest city braced for yet another round of demonstrations on Tuesday night by an increasingly powerful movement that has grown from complaints about bus fares to a broad challenge to political corruption, lavish stadium projects, the cost of living and substandard public services. SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Shaken by the biggest challenge to their authority in years, Brazil’s leaders made conciliatory gestures on Tuesday to try to defuse the protests engulfing the nation’s cities. But the demonstrators remained defiant, pouring into the streets by the thousands and venting their anger over political corruption, the high cost of living and huge public spending for the World Cup and the Olympics.
The mayor of São Paulo, Fernando Haddad, met on Tuesday morning with representatives of the protest movement, but warned that it would not be possible to revoke the increase in bus fares, citing budget restraints. In the nation’s capital, Brasília, officials seemed to be grasping for ways to engage the movement, whose protests rank among the largest and most resonant since the nation’s military dictatorship ended in 1985. In a convulsion that has caught many in Brazil and beyond by surprise, waves of protesters denounced their leaders for dedicating so much of their attention and resources to cultivating Brazil’s global image by building stadiums for international events, when basic services like education and health care remain woefully inadequate.
“These voices, which go beyond traditional mechanisms, political parties and the media itself, need to be heard,” President Dilma Rousseff said in a speech on Tuesday morning. Ms. Rousseff, who has been the target of pointed criticism by some protesters, said that Brazil “awoke stronger” after the protests on Monday night: “The greatness of yesterday’s demonstrations were proof of the energy of our democracy.” “I love soccer, but we need schools,” said Evaldir Cardoso, 48, a fireman who showed up to the protest here with his 7-month-old son.
Gilberto Carvalho, a top aide to Ms. Rousseff, said that the authorities were hoping to establish a dialogue to respond to a widening movement that seems to have caught them by surprise. “It would be a presumption to think that we understand what is happening,” he said before senators on Tuesday morning. “We need to be aware of the complexity of what is occurring.” The demonstrations initially began with a fury over a hike in bus fares, but as with many other protests movements in recent years — in Tunisia, Egypt, or most recently, Turkey — they quickly evolved into a much broader condemnation of the government.
Protesters showed up by the thousands in Brazil’s largest cities on Monday night in a remarkable display of strength for an agitation that had begun with small protests over bus fares. By the time politicians in several cities backed down on Tuesday and announced that they would cut or consider reducing fares, the demonstrations had already morphed into a more sweeping social protest, with marchers waving banners carrying slogans like “The people have awakened.”
Demonstrators numbering into the tens of thousands gathered here in São Paulo, and other large protests unfolded in cities like Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Curitiba, Belém and Brasília, the capital, where marchers made their way to the roof of Congress. “It all seemed so wonderful in the Brazil oasis, and suddenly we are reliving the demonstrations of Tahrir Square in Cairo, so suddenly, without warning, without a crescendo,” said Eliane Cantanhêde, a columnist for the newspaper Folha de São Paulo. “We were all caught by surprise. From paradise, we have slipped at least into limbo. What is happening in Brazil?”
Sharing a parallel with the antigovernment protests in Turkey, the demonstrations in Brazil intensified after a harsh police crackdown last week stunned many citizens. In images shared widely on social media, the police here were seen beating unarmed protesters with batons and dispersing crowds by firing rubber bullets and tear gas into their midst. Thousands gathered at São Paulo’s main cathedral and made their way to the mayor’s office, where a small group smashed windows and tried to break in, forcing guards to withdraw.
“The violence has come from the government,” said Mariana Toledo, 27, a graduate student at the University of São Paulo who was among the protesters on Monday. “Such violent acts by the police instill fear, and at the same time the need to keep protesting.” In Juazeiro do Norte, demonstrators cornered the mayor inside a bank for hours and called for his impeachment, while thousands of others protested teachers’ salaries. In other cities, demonstrators blocked roads, barged into City Council meetings or interrupted meetings of local lawmakers, taking over the microphone, clapping loudly, sometimes wearing clown noses.
While the demonstration in São Paulo was not marred by the widespread repression that marked a protest here last week, riot police officers in Belo Horizonte dispersed protesters with pepper spray and tear gas. In Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil, police officers also used tear gas against protesters. The protests rank among the largest outpourings of dissent since the nation’s military dictatorship ended in 1985. After a harsh police crackdown only fueled the demonstrators’ anger, President Dilma Rousseff, a former guerrilla who was imprisoned under the dictatorship and has now become the target of pointed criticism herself, tried to appease dissenters by embracing their cause on Tuesday. “These voices, which go beyond traditional mechanisms, political parties and the media itself, need to be heard,” Ms. Rousseff said. “The greatness of yesterday’s demonstrations were proof of the energy of our democracy.”
In Rio de Janeiro, where an independent estimate put the number of protesters around 100,000, televised images showed masked demonstrators trying to storm public buildings including the state legislature, a part of which was set on fire. In Brasilía, the police seemed to be caught off-guard by protesters who danced and chanted on the roof of Congress, a modernist building designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer. Her tone stood in sharp contrast to the approach adopted by Turkey, where similar demonstrations over what might also have seemed an isolated issue — the fate of a city park in Istanbul — quickly escalated into a broad rejection of the government’s legitimacy from a vocal section of the population.
Such broad protests are relatively uncommon in Brazil, with some Brazilian political analysts describing what appeared to be a political culture more accepting of longstanding high levels of inequality and substandard public services than citizens in some neighboring countries in South America. But while Turkey’s prime minister has dismissed the protesters as terrorists, vandals and “bums,” Ms. Rousseff seemed acutely aware of the breadth of frustration in Brazil over the gap between the nation’s global aspirations and the reality for many millions of its people.
“The dangerous news announced on the streets, the novelty that the state tried to crush under the hooves of the horses of São Paulo’s police, is that at last we are alive,” the writer Eliane Brum said in an essay about the protests. The protests in Brazil are unfolding just as its long and heralded economic boom may be coming to an end. The economy has slowed to a pale shadow of its growth in recent years; inflation is high, the currency is declining sharply against the dollar — but the expectations of Brazilians have rarely been higher, feeding broad intolerance with corruption, bad schools and other government failings.
Brazil now seems to be pivoting toward a new phase of interaction between demonstrators and political leaders with its wave of protests, which crystallized this year in Porto Alegre. There, a group called the Free Fare Movement, which advocates lower public transportation fares, organized demonstrations against an increase in bus fares. “People are going hungry and the government builds stadiums,” said Eleuntina Scuilgaro, an 83-year-old pensioner at the protests here in São Paulo. “I’m here for my granddaughters. If you’re tired, go home, take a shower and return. That’s what I’m doing.”
Similar protests emerged in May in Natal, a city in northeast Brazil, and this month in São Paulo, after the authorities raised bus fares by the equivalent of about 9 cents to 3.20 reais, about $1.47, prompting a wave of demonstrations that have grown in intensity. One of Ms. Rousseff’s senior aides said Tuesday that tax measures already adopted by the authorities would allow São Paulo to lower bus fares considerably, though it was unclear whether the concession was too late and too limited to derail the protest movement.
While the increase came at a time of growing concern over inflation, which remains high even as economic growth has slowed considerably, the anger over the increase also reflects broader indignation over public transportation systems in São Paulo and in other large cities, which are plagued by inefficiency, overcrowding and crime. One of the major complaints among demonstrators is government corruption, as evidenced by the trial involving senior figures in the governing Workers Party in one of Brazil’s largest political scandals in recent memory.
“Today’s protests are the result of years and years of depending on chaotic and expensive transportation,” said Érica de Oliveira, 22, a student who was among the demonstrators. None of the officials sentenced in the trials has yet gone to jail, despite the prosecution’s contention that they should have begun serving their sentences immediately after the high court announced them in November. 
A large number of protesters in São Paulo on Monday were university students, but middle-aged professionals and parents with children in strollers were also present. The scene seemed at once furious and festive. Some protesters had draped Brazilian flags over their shoulders; one held up a sign that read, “Brazil Colony, until when?” “We’re furious about what our political leaders do, their corruption,” said Enderson dos Santos, 35, an office worker protesting in São Paulo. “I’m here to show my children that Brazil has woken up.”
While the protest in Brasília included strong criticism of congressional leaders, many placards here in São Paulo did not direct anger at Congress, at the federal government in Brasília or even at local authorities on the state or municipal level. Still, protesters in various cities focused on symbols of government power. Here in São Paulo, they marched to the governor’s palace; in Rio, to the state legislature; and in Brasília, to the Congress.   Some of the stadiums being built for the World Cup, scheduled for next year, have also been criticized for delays and cost overruns, and have become subjects of derision as protesters question whether they will become white elephants. One in Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon, will have capacity for 43,000, but it is in a city where average attendance at professional soccer games stands at fewer than 600 fans.
Fabio Malini, a scholar who analyzes data patterns in social media at the Federal University of Espírito Santo, said he was impressed by the movement’s refusal to be defined by a single objective and by its extensive use of social media, which has enabled it to evolve fast in response to various sources of social and political tension in Brazil.  Government institutions seem prepared to continue plowing public funds into the projects. A Brazilian newspaper reported Tuesday that the national development bank had approved a new loan of about $200 million for Itaquerão, a new stadium in São Paulo that is expected to host the opening match of the World Cup.
One issue surging to the fore involves anger over stadium projects in various cities ahead of the 2014 World Cup, which Brazil is preparing to host. Some projects have been hindered by cost overruns and delays, the unfinished structures standing as testament to an injection of resources into sports arenas at a time when schools and public transit systems need upgrades. “When you see the investments in health and education and then you compare that to the massive investments to carry out the World Cup, it is clear that this provokes a certain indignation,” said Adão Clóvis Martins dos Santos, a sociologist at Catholic University in Porto Alegre.
“The largest protests are happening in cities which will host World Cup games,” Mr. Malini said. “Brazilians are mixing soccer and politics in a way that is new, and minority voices are making themselves heard.”

Paula Ramon contributed reporting from São Paulo, and Taylor Barnes from Rio de Janeiro.

Paula Ramon contributed reporting from São Paulo, and Taylor Barnes from Rio de Janeiro.