I love it when Latin America news gets mainstream attention in the U.S. media. And unlike the whole debacle of Edward Snowden requesting asylum in Ecuador, this story has nothing to do with the U.S. For once, people across the country and the world are taking a few seconds out of their busy lives to be concerned about a Latin American country -- indeed, a major world power -- outside the context of soccer, tropical vacations, or American foreign policy. Heck, Stephen Colbert even devoted an entire segment to this story on his show.
Of course, I'm talking about the protests that have been raging across Brazil for the past several weeks and show no signs of slowing. By now, it's clear that the demonstrations are about far more than the ten-cent public transportation fare hike that acted as the catalyst. Among their motivations, protesters cite rampant political corruption, poor public services, and lavish spending on the World Cup and Olympics when the same money could be spent on health, education, and security initiatives instead. In short, although Brazil is reportedly now the world's seventh-largest economy, this success has not reached average Brazilians.
A few days ago, I reached out to a Brazilian friend of mine who has been participating in the protests to inquire about her reasons for taking to the streets. In many ways, she is representative of the kind of people that make up this movement: young, college-educated, middle-class, and at least in her case, very socially-aware. I had seen her posts about the protests on Facebook, and my Portuguese being what it is (read: almost nonexistent), I decided to send her a few questions in English in an attempt to gauge what was going on.
She responded with a long, impassioned account that echoed much of what I had read. Describing the state of her city, Belo Horizonte, as that of a "war site," she detailed the police's "abuses of power" during the demonstrations, including the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and physical assaults on protesters as well as reporters. "Today I really feared for my life out there," she said, having been struck in the head by a can of tear gas. Like other protesters, public transportation seems to be a huge concern for her; although the average Brazilian pays nearly 26% of their monthly income to ride the bus, the system is both overcrowded and unsafe. Among her other grievances are corruption, lack of investment in health and education, a recently-passed bill that treats homosexuality as a disease, and FIFA's effective autonomy over parts of the cities. Many of the problems are things that Brazilians have endured quietly for years.
As for President Rousseff's administration, my friend seemed both apathetic and forgiving ("I don't like her government, but there's only so much she can do"), and stressed that much of the blame for the country's problems falls on congressmen and leaders of local and state governments. But she also noted that some politicians are manipulating the protests to score political points at Rousseff's expense. At the same time, the media has been overplaying the violence to turn the public against the demonstrators, she explained, while trying to tell them how to act "just so the protest won't bother the rich people and the foreigners that are here."
Despite the bleakness of the situation, she remains positive that the voices of millions will be heard, and called the protests "a great opportunity for Brazilians, who [don't] really like to discuss politics, to talk about it, understand how it works and become more conscious of their power." And it appears they have already had an effect: the Senate has begun to enact reforms, including a law that classifies corruption as a "heinous crime" with new, tougher sentences for offenders.
It seems the giant has indeed awoken, and will be silenced by nothing less than real change.
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