A protestor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is here drenched with pepper spray by a military cop trying to deter the over 200,000 protestors who flooded the streets in at least eight major cities. In country after country, the oligarchs are attempting to answer extreme force & massive opposition with outrageous violence.
Protestors are directly linking the lavish expenditures for the 2014 World Cup games & 2016 summer Olympics to the growing impoverishment of millions of Brazilians sustaining a high cost of living & exorbitant taxation rates. We already witnessed the forcible eviction of indigenous settlers at Maracana Village in Rio to build parking lots for the limousines & upscale shopping malls for the thousands of well-heeled attendees at the games. Some protests in Rio took place at the Maracana stadium complex & may well be inspired in part by the example of indigenous resistance at Maracana, Brasilia, & elsewhere.
President Dilma Rousseff is issuing fatuous statements of support for the protestors, saying she’s proud of them for making Brazilian democracy strong. But she has yet to explain how her government can side with democracy while siccing violent cops on protestors without her intervention or opposition. In politics you can’t have it both ways. You can’t have democracy with a billy club.
(Photo by Victor R. Caivano/AP)
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