Before the more than 10 days of powerful protests called ‘ The Vinegar Revolution’ (because of protesters carrying vinegar to counteract the immediate harmful effects of tear gas), President Dilma Rousseff called an emergency meeting with her ministers to determine the measures to be adopted by the government in order to deal with more than one million people rioting in the streets of at least 80 cities.
The intensity of the protests, which are given by the increasing in public transport fares and the excessive spending on sports infrastructure, while in other necessary areas there is no investment whatsoever, have already left a deceased person who has been identified by O’Globo TV channel as Marco Delfrati, 18 years old, who died in the state of Sao Paulo when he was hit by a car during a national day of protests that took one million people to the streets.
According to Brazilian historians, from Brasilia, the capital, through the economic and financial heart of the country, Sao Paulo, and to the world famous Rio de Janeiro, the people of almost all major cities of the country are participating in protests not seen in Brazil for at least two decades.
- In Rio de Janeiro took place the largest and most violent protest with 300,000 protesters, who marched to the town hall in the midst of the Confederations Cup.
- In Brasilia, where 30 thousand people protested, a group of people tried to set the Ministry of Interior on fire, after crossing a police barrier and launching burning objects in the inside.
- In Salvador, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets against part of the 20,000 protesters concentrated 2 km from the stadium where Nigeria and Uruguay faced each other (2-1) for the Confederations Cup, after a small group threw some stones.
- In addition to Rio and Brasilia, other cities such as Vitoria, Porto Alegre, Belem, Campinas and, previously, in Salvador de Bahia, registered clashes between small groups of violent protesters and police, who responded stone throwing with smoke bombs, tear gas and rubber bullets.
