I'm baffled by the censorship in my Boston Globe:
"Brazil leader speaks after days of anger; Vows to address protest demands" by Marco Sibaja, Jenny Barchfield and Bradley Brooks | Associated Press, June 22, 2013
BRASILIA, Brazil — President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil ended her near-silence about more than a week of massive, violent protests, saying in a primetime TV broadcast Friday that peaceful demonstrations were part of a strong democracy but that violence could not be tolerated.
Unless it is committed by police, but the further point is any protesters committing violence are agent provocateurs since protesters never benefit by violence.
She promised to make improvements to public services, but said it could not be done overnight.
Rousseff said she will soon hold a meeting with leaders of the protest movement, governors, and the mayors of major cities. But it remained unclear exactly who could represent the massive and decentralized groups of demonstrators taking to the streets, venting anger against woeful public services despite a high tax burden.
Oh, the Brazilian people are being ripped-off, too, 'eh?
Rousseff said that her government will create a national plan for public transportation in cities — a hike in bus and subway fares in many cities was the original complaint of the protests. She also reiterated her backing for a plan before congress to invest all oil revenue royalties in education and a promise she already made to bring in foreign doctors to areas that lack physicians.
Sadly, money-junkies have risen to power in every country.
“I’m going to meet with the leaders of the peaceful protests, I want institutions that are more transparent, more resistant to wrongdoing,” Rousseff said in reference to perceptions of deep corruption in Brazilian politics, which is emerging as a focal point of the protests. “It’s citizenship and not economic power that must be heard first.”
Rousseff, a former Marxist rebel who fought against Brazil’s 1964 to 1985 military regime and was imprisoned for three years and tortured by the junta, pointedly referred to earlier sacrifices made to free the nation from dictatorship.
“My generation fought a lot so that the voice of the streets could be heard,” she said. “Many were persecuted, tortured, and many died for this. The voice of the street must be heard and respected and it can’t be confused with the noise and truculence of some troublemakers.”
That's why the recent rule has been so disappointing, although not entirely unexpected. We often see former rebels and revolutionaries $ell into the $y$tem as Lula did.
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Trying to decipher the president’s reaction to the unrest had become a national guessing game, especially after some 1 million antigovernment demonstrators took to the streets nationwide the night before to denounce everything from poor public services to the billions spent for next year’s World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
The protests continued Friday, as about 1,000 people marched in western Rio de Janeiro city, with some looting stores and invading an enormous $250 million arts center that remains empty after several years of construction.
Provocateurs, maybe even CIA-sponsored.
Police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas as they were pelted with rocks. Police said some in the crowd were armed and firing at officers.
Think I believe the cops?
Local radio was also reporting that protesters were heading to the apartment of Rio state Governor Sergio Cabral in the posh Rio neighborhood of Ipanema.
Other protests broke out in the country’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, where traffic was paralyzed but no violence reported, and in Fortaleza in the country’s northeast. Demonstrators were calling for more mobilizations in 10 cities on Saturday.
The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops came out in favor of the protests, saying that it maintains “solidarity and support for the demonstrations, as long as they remain peaceful.”
“This is a phenomenon involving the Brazilian people and the awakening of a new consciousness,” church leaders said in the statement. “The protests show all of us that we cannot live in a country with so much inequality.”
Yeah, Latin America has a long history regarding liberation theology.
Rousseff had never held elected office before she became president in 2011 and remains clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight.
She is the political protege of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a charismatic former union leader whose tremendous popularity helped usher his former chief of staff to the country’s top office. A career technocrat and trained economist, Rousseff’s tough managerial style under Silva earned her the moniker “the Iron Lady,” a name she has said she detests.
I suppose that is one small thing in her favor. She doesn't look up to the great Thatcher as a role model.
While Rousseff stayed away from the public eye for most of the week, Roberto Jaguaribe, the nation’s ambassador to Britain, told news channel CNN Friday the government was first trying to contain the protests.
He labeled as “very delicate” the myriad demands emanating from protesters in the streets.
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So far so good, but....
"In Brazil, demonstrations march on; Movement starts to coalesce around corruption fight" by Bradley Brooks | Associated Press, June 23, 2013
SAO PAULO — About 150,000 antigovernment demonstrators again took to streets in several Brazilian cities Saturday and engaged police in some isolated, intense conflicts. Anger over political corruption emerged as the unifying issue for the demonstrators, who vowed to stay in the streets until concrete steps are taken to reform the political system.
The first thing I noticed is it is nothing like my print article.
Across Brazil, protesters gathered to denounce legislation, known as PEC 37, that would limit the power of federal prosecutors to investigate crimes — which many fear would hinder attempts to jail corrupt politicians.
Federal prosecutors were behind the investigation into the biggest corruption case in Brazil’s history, the ‘‘mensalao’’ cash-for-votes scheme that came to light in 2005 and involved top aides of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, former president, buying off members of Congress to vote for their legislation.
I was told that was democracy at its finest by my Globe!
Last year, the Supreme Court condemned two dozen people in connection to the case, which was hailed as a watershed moment in Brazil’s fight against corruption. However, those condemned have yet to be jailed because of appeals, a delay that has enraged Brazilians.
The protests continued despite a primetime speech the night before from President Dilma Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla who was tortured during Brazil’s military dictatorship. She tried to appease demonstrators by reiterating that peaceful protests were a welcome, democratic action and emphasizing that she would not condone corruption in her government.
When they pull that word out you know the agenda-pushing paper is not in favor of the protests.
Yup, poor protesters and taxpayers are the threat to peace.
Rousseff promised that she would always battle corruption and that she would meet with peaceful protesters, governors, and the mayors of big cities to create a national plan to improve urban transportation and use oil royalties for investments in education.
‘‘Dilma is underestimating the resolve of the people on the corruption issue,’’ said Mayara Fernandes, a medical student who took part in a march Saturday in Sao Paulo. ‘‘She talked and talked and said nothing. Nobody can take the corruption of this country anymore.’’
The wave of protests began as opposition to transportation fare hikes, then became a laundry list of causes including anger at high taxes, poor services and high World Cup spending, before coalescing around the issue of rampant government corruption.
It's Brazil's Occupy!
They have become the largest public demonstrations Latin America’s biggest nation has seen in two decades.
Yes, I've been told the Brazilian people are pretty passive, but maybe that was just the poverty and hunger.
Across Brazil, police estimated that about 60,000 demonstrators gathered in a central square in the city of Belo Horizonte, 30,000 shut down a main business avenue in Sao Paulo, and another 30,000 gathered in the city in southern Brazil where a nightclub fire killed more than 240 mostly university students, deaths many argued could have been avoided with better government oversight of fire laws.
Related: Burned Alive in Brazil
Also see:
And the concern is the Olympics and the World Cup?
Thousands more protested in dozens of Brazilian cities.
In Belo Horizonte, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who tried to pass through a barrier and hurled rocks at a car dealership.
Salvador also saw protests turn violent.
And cui bono?
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What my printed Sunday Globe gave me:
"Brazil: Thousands Protest Anew, but Crowds Smaller" by AP / Bradley Brooks and Stan Lehman June 22, 2013
(SAO PAULO) — Thousands of anti-government demonstrators again took to streets in several Brazilian cities Saturday after the president broke a long silence to promise reforms, but the early protests were smaller than those of recent days and with only scattered reports of violence in a country where many are fed up with the high rate of robberies and killings....
Harumph!
President Dilma Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla who was tortured under Brazil’s long military dictatorship, made a televised 10-minute appearance on Friday backing the right to peaceful protest but sharply condemning violence, vandalism and looting.
She also promised to be tougher on corruption and said she would meet with peaceful protesters, governors and the mayors of big cities to create a national plan to improve urban transportation and use oil royalties for investments in education. Much of the anger behind the protests has been aimed at costly bus fares, high taxes and poor public services such as schools and health care.
Many Brazilians, shocked by a week of protests and violence, hoped that Rousseff’s words would help soothe tensions and help avoid more violence, but not all were convinced by her promises of action.
Still, a rapidly growing crowd blocked Sao Paulo’s main business street, the Avenida Paulista, to press their demands.
Victoria Villela, a 21-year-old university student who joined a rapidly growing crowd of demonstrators blocking Sao Paulo’s main business street, the Avenida Paulista, said she was “frustrated and exhausted by the endless corruption of our government.
“It was good Dilma spoke, but this movement has moved to far, there was not much she could really say. All my friends were talking on Facebook about how she said nothing that satisfied them. I think the protests are going to continue for a long time and the crowds will still be huge.”
My media is already telling me they are lessening. Sigh.
Around her, fathers held young boys aloft on their shoulders, older women gathered in clusters with their faces bearing yellow and green stripes, color of brazil flag.
In the northeastern city of Salvador, where Brazil’s national football team was set to play Italy in a match for the Confederations Cup, some 5,000 protesters gathered about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the stadium, shouting demands for better schools and transportation and denouncing heavy spending on next year’s World Cup.
You never see that in AmeriKa. No one protests at the sports events. Well, maybe Mike Vick a few years ago, but that's about it.
Rodrigo Costa, a 32-year-old civil engineer in the city, said that it was good just to see a popular movement force “a head of state to go on TV and talk about the problems of the country.”
“She didn’t touch in all the issues that the people want to see improved,” Costa said. “But I think that just in general it was a good message.”
Brazil’s news media, which had blasted Rousseff in recent days for her lack of response, seemed largely unimpressed with her careful speech, but noted the difficult situation facing a government trying to understand a mass movement with no central leaders and a flood of demands.
Looks and sounds good, doesn't it?
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One other thing to consider as to whether these are being fomented by U.S. intelligence (there is precedent), is that Brazil is one of the emerging economic powers as the EUSraeli Empire heads into decline. This would indeed serve the purpose of destabilization and at least weaken them to that end.
Has Brazil threatened to get out of the dollar-dominated private central bank scheme lately? Has it done a Khadafy and proposed a South American backed denomination of currency?
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
All's quiet on the Globe front.
