Brazilians protest near stadium

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 27 Juni 2013 | 19.15

26 June 2013 Last updated at 17:38 ET
Clashes at Belo Horizonte

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Julia Carneiro reports from Belo Horizonte as police tackle protesters with tear gas

Brazilian police have used tear gas to stop protesters from approaching a football stadium during a Brazil-Uruguay Confederations Cup match.

About 50,000 protesters marched to the stadium in Belo Horizonte.

A small number of them tried to push past police lines. About 20 people were detained.

The crowds repeated the demands they have made since the protests began - more spending on education and health, and a crackdown on corruption.

They also complained about the high cost of the 2014 World Cup, for which the Confederations Cup is a dress rehearsal.

The match has now finished; Brazil beat Uruguay 2-1, and qualified for the final of the tournament.

Since the demonstrations escalated last week, President Dilma Rousseff has introduced a series of measures to answer some of those demands.

Continue reading the main story

Julia Carneiro BBC Brasil, Belo Horizonte


The scenes at the demonstration's beginning and end seemed worlds apart. During the festive gathering at Praca Sete, in Belo Horizonte's city centre, the crowds waved banners, played drums, blew horns.

But at the end of the 8km march towards the Mineirao football stadium clashes with police started, as a group of protestors repeatedly tried to break the police lines protecting a perimeter about 2km from the entrance.

Police used tear gas to push them away. Groups broke into shops, set cars on fire, threw rocks and fireworks at the police and broke hundreds of beer bottles taken from inside a convenience shop in the middle of the street. I could smell the smoke mixed together with tear gas and firecrackers.

These were the people at the very front line - but hundreds of others were spectators at a distance. And the majority didn't even get close, wanting no part in the violence.

Protestors I spoke to said they were relieved by the first measures taken by President Dilma Rousseff and by Brazil's Congress in response to the demonstrations. But they didn't seem ready to get off the streets just yet, after having had a taste of this new found power of public pressure.

In the capital, Brasilia, campaigners against social inequality have placed 594 footballs in front of the parliament building to show that the "ball is in the court of the Congress to pass the reforms demanded by those on the streets".

Government concessions

A key grievance of protesters was a proposed constitutional amendment, PEC 37, which would have limited the power of federal prosecutors to investigate crimes - which demonstrators claim could have opened the way for more corruption.

But on Tuesday, the proposed measure was defeated by 430 votes to nine.

Congress also voted to use all the royalties from newly discovered oil fields for education and health.

Some of the largest oil finds in recent years have been discovered off the Brazilian coast, and the country is expected to be able to produce tens of billions of barrels of crude oil over the coming decades.

In another attempt to pacify protesters, the government promised to speed up the pace of reform.

It said it would simplify a referendum to establish a constituent assembly - proposed on Monday by President Dilma Rousseff - to allow for a vote as early as 7 September.

The sudden burst of initiatives is not confined to the government, the BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo says.

The president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, has proposed free transport for all students.

The rising cost of public transport was the main catalyst for the protests, and various city authorities have already decided to reverse fare increases.


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