Rio tent camp offers glimpse of Brazil's anger

A tent camp set up by protesters outside the Rio de Janeiro governor’s residence in this well-heeled seaside neighborhood provides a window onto the turmoil that has rocked Brazil.

Here property prices have shot up to $11,000 per square meter, in a country where the minimum wage is just $330, and dozens of youths who might have been off watching the Confederations Cup are venting their anger at the government.

These are some of the hundreds of thousands of Brazilians who have taken to the streets in recent days in nationwide mass protests, and they show no sign of going home after President Dilma Rousseff’s conciliatory speech on Friday.

The protests were triggered by a hike in transit fares but have grown to encompass everything from high-level government corruption to the billions of dollars spent on the Confederations Cup and next year’s World Cup.

“We will no longer accept corruption,” said one of the protesters, Silvina Farinatti, who asked: “Why aren’t wrongdoers in jail?”

Brazil has sought to tackle widespread corruption by bringing to trial politicians suspected of involvement in a vote-buying scandal during the administration of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

But Rousseff — the onetime protege to the wildly popular Lula — admitted Friday that the country must do more to crack down on corruption and improve its shoddy public services.

The protesters at the Rio tent camp appeared far from convinced. On Saturday an activist in a neoprene surfing suit open to the waist held a sign reading: “If you’re not corrupt, toot your horn.” Dozens of cars and buses responded.

The widespread protests have evoked comparisons with the Occupy movement in the United States and the housing protests in Israel in 2011, with young activists organizing via social media to express anger at rising inequality.

Sven, a 19-year-old photography student, joined the protest after contacting the Anonymous Rio group, which organizes via a Twitter account.

“What has become of my taxes? I want to know why they have spent so much money on stadiums” for the Confederations and World Cups, Sven said.

“Why have they wasted so much money on this?”

Youth brought up under Lula’s popular social policies — credited with pulling 40 million Brazilians out of poverty — might have been expected to flock to the premier athletic events being held in this soccer-mad nation.

Instead, they have led the way in waking a “sleeping giant,” according to Zuenir Ventura, a well-known columnist for the O Globo daily.

Well over a million people took to the streets on Thursday, and a poll taken ahead of Rousseff’s remarks found that 75 percent of the country’s 194 million people support the protest movement.

On Friday, Rousseff vowed to respond to the public’s demands while urging the protesters to express their views peacefully, following clashes with police and acts of vandalism by some demonstrators.

There was no violence at the Rio tent camp, as around 15 police looked on after closing off access to the governor’s house, but many protesters said they still feel they are being ignored.

“Dilma speaks as if she were already on the electoral stump: promises, promises, promises. Do the people have to destroy public property for them to realize that we need things to change?” asked actor Vinicius Fragoso, 20.

The youngest protestor at the tent camp was just nine months old, with cheeks painted in the national colors of yellow and green.

“We want an end to the thieving (by the political class). We want political reform, a better future for our children,” said the child’s mother, Celia Pereira, 35, who lives near the governor.

“This is democracy, the people must protest. There is so much corruption and total impunity. Everything is overpriced,” Eduardo Amaral, a 65-year-old neighbor, said.

“Let’s see if the governor is listening.”

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