SAO PAULO: Road blocks and marches hit Brazilian cities as disparate groups criticised spending on the upcoming World Cup soccer tournament and sought to revive a call for better public services that swept the country last June.
Less than a month before the tournament kicks off, and four months before a presidential election, Thursday’s protests will gauge the ability of demonstrators to once again rally frustrated Brazilians and the competence of police to manage unrest that occasionally escalated over the past year into violence and vandalism.
A main thoroughfare was blocked with burning tyres in Brazil’s biggest city of Sao Paulo and protesters stormed a building in the capital Brasilia. Marchers in Rio de Janeiro blocked traffic on the two main streets in the city centre.
Looters took advantage of a three-day police strike in the northeastern city of Recife, a World Cup venue. Supermarkets, shops and vehicles were ransacked. The army and units of a special gendarmerie have been called in to keep order.
Groups, including the Homeless Workers Movement, marched towards a World Cup stadium in Sao Paulo, site of the tournament’s June 12 kickoff, that has become a target because of families displaced by its construction. (AP)
