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Dom Phillips has returned to Rio de Janeiro, and sent in this video of protests there last night. He says the group there was more diverse, less dominated by the upper middle class than the protests in São Paulo – in Rio it was “the povão – periferia, favela, middle class, everyone.”
He writes: A crowd of at least 300,000 march through central Rio de Janeiro on Thursday to protest a wide range of grievances, including political corruption, failing health and education services, and spending on the World Cup. Trouble broke out when the crowd reached Rio Town Hall – there are various versions as to why – and police then fired tear gas indiscriminately into the huge crowd. As youths threw bricks and missiles, police responded with rubber bullets and more gas, then systematically moved through central Rio, firing tear gas as they went, sending panicked crowds running before them. At times small groups stopped to throw stones or light fires of rubbish on the street, but the sound of exploding gas canister and the clouds of gas they released soon sent them running again. The overwhelming mood was one of fear, disorder and aggression. Isolated violent incidents persisted for hours afterwards.
