Above the fold on the front page of today’s (06/19/13) hardcopy New York Times a large photograph shows
a Brazilian police officer dousing a protestor’s face in pepper spray from
barely over a foot away [permalink to the online Times article below]. The unarmed and seemingly unthreatening protester
is cringing and raising her hand in a vain attempt to cover her face as the
officer in riot gear soaks her in enough spray to drip down her neck. This is
the kind of image that undoubtedly interferes with the sleep of President Dilma
Rousseff, herself a former urban guerrilla who decades ago most likely would have been on the receiving end of such governmental shows of strength. Tens of
thousands of similar episodes took place across the country today, mostly in
Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, but also in Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte,
Salvador, and especially national capital Brasília, along with many other major
cities. According to the newspaper Jornal
do Brasil, in Rio alone, more than 100,000 people took to the streets to
protest rising bus fares and the lack of investment in urban infrastructure and
education. The flash point for these protests that have been growing over the
last few months was the increase in the cost of municipal transportation in
various major cities, notable Florianópolis (capital of Santa Catarina state)
were rioters have been setting fire to local buses all year, sometimes (albeit
rarely) with people still on board. The deeper problems, however, relate to the
country’s massive investment in the 2014 World Cup and the lingering irritation
with a huge corruption scandal that unfolded during the presidency of Luis
Inácio Lula da Silva, predecessor and political godfather to current president Rousseff.
Currently Brazil is hosting the Confederations Cup, a shake-down for
next year’s World Cup which serves to both ramp up enthusiasm for the quadriannual
sporting event and also to test infrastructure preparations in terms of
transportation, lodging, security, and most importantly the stadiums
themselves. Even though the country
already boasted major league soccer stadiums in every large city – and cities such
as Rio, São Paulo and Porto Alegre each had several – all of the venues
required significant retrofitting, and in some cases entirely new stadiums are
being built. The hundreds of millions of dollars flowing from public coffers to
cover these costs promise to provide significant returns as visitors flood the
country in July of next year, and for Rio again in 2016 for the Olympics. While the accepted wisdom may be that the
investment will pay for itself in the short term and provide long-term benefits
for the populace, the rash of ever more violent conflicts around the country
demonstrate that the government sorely underestimated the level of resentment
over corruption, exacerbated by a slowing economy and a renewed specter of
inflation. According to the newspaper Zero
Hora, a new poll released by the National Confederation of Industry together
with the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics (Confederação
Nacional da Indústria-CNI, and Instituto Brasileiro de Opinião Pública e Estatística-Ibope),
President Rousseff’s approval rating fell another 8% since March.
Moreover, the percentage of people who consider her administration bad or
terrible grew from 7% to 13% in the same period. The irony of Rousseff’s
position is not lost on the people of Brazil, especially among those who traditionally
were the strongest supporters of the Workers’ Party (Partido dos
Trabalhadores-PT). In the 1960s and into the 1970s, Rousseff was part of
Marxist urban guerrilla groups that engaged in armed conflict in opposition to
the oppressive military regime. Now as president she is ultimately responsible
for the policing of the present day activists and protesters, in essence the
one commanding the force that pepper sprayed the unarmed woman in the Times photo. Moreover, Rousseff’s rise
to the presidency was a direct result of the corruption scandal under Lula’s
watch which toppled his Chief of Staff José Dirceu. Until that happened, Dirceu
was Lula’s political heir apparent, and Rousseff not only filled his cabinet
position but also assumed the role as Lula’s chosen successor. To date, none of the politicians found guilty in connection with the "Mensalão" corruption scandal has served time in prison.
In soccer, the Brazilian national team needs a strong showing in the
Confederations Cup to boost public morale and player confidence. Indeed,
anything short of total victory will be viewed as a significant disappointment.
Politically, Rousseff needs a quick win to control the protesters not only to
ensure the success of this Cup and the next, but also to bolster her own
agenda. Her harshest critics are openly questioning if Rousseff will be able to
govern effectively if/when the popular manifestations die down. When introduced
by FIFA president Sepp Blatter to officially open the Confederations Cup on
Saturday, Rousseff was soundly booed by the tens of thousands filling Maracanã
Stadium. The Times article compares
what is happening in Brazil to what has happened in Turkey and other Arab
countries where seemingly local protests quickly exploded into large-scale national
uprisings. While the comparison seems far-fetched, given that even the most
violent of these Brazilian protests do not include armies of citizens aiming
guns at government troops, the parallels are worth considering. The article
does emphasize the difference of Rousseff’s approach: today she officially
changed tactics and praised the manifestations as signs of Brazil’s strong
democracy. She is right. Some 45 years ago the people would not have even had
the right to protest and the troops would have responded with bullets rather
than pepper spray, but if Rousseff cannot successfully co-opt and appease – as she
is trying to do – the wide range of people taking to the streets, she could end
up out of the game.
