Military police fire tear gas at protestors during an anti-government demonstration in Rio de Janeiro. (AP)
Several hundred thousand Brazilians attend a protest against against corruption and price hikes in Rio de Janeiro. (EPA)
Policemen clash with demonstrators during a protest to demand better public services, in Rio de Janeiro. (EPA)
Demonstrators outside Itamaray Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, 20 June 2013. (EPA)
Police protect themselves against stone-throwing demonstrators during an anti-government protest in Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River. (REUTERS)
Demonstrators stand next to a fire during a protest part of what is now called the ‘Tropical Spring’ against corruption and price hikes. (AFP/Getty Images)
People march in downtown Rio de Janeiro on June 20, 2013, during a protest of what is now called the ‘Tropical Spring’ against corruption and price hikes. (AFP/Getty Images)
BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazilians struggled Friday to comprehend the protests shaking their nation after 1 million anti-government demonstrators took to the streets the previous night in scores of cities, with clusters battling police and destroying swaths of storefronts and government buildings.
President Dilma Rousseff held an emergency meeting about the protests with the nation’s justice minister but didn’t make any comment afterward, continuing her largely silent response to the unrest.
Her aides said they didn’t know if she would address the nation in an attempt to calm protesters, but she was expected to meet in the afternoon with top bishops from the Catholic Church about the protests’ possible effects on a papal visit still scheduled next month in Rio and Sao Paulo state.
Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla who was imprisoned and tortured during Brazil’s military dictatorship, has done little more than show brief support for the protesters since the biggest demonstrations seen here in decades began a week ago. That mute reaction has triggered furious criticism that she has let the situation spiral out of control.
There were also growing calls on social media and in mass emails for a general strike next week. However, Brazil’s two largest nationwide unions, the Central Workers Union and the Union Force, said they knew nothing about such an action.
A Thursday night protest in Sao Paulo was the first with a strong union presence, with members wearing matching shirts and a marching drum corps leading them down a main avenue. But the majority of protesters across Brazil have called for a movement with no political parties or unions, widely considering them tinged with corruption.
So far, the protests have represented an amorphous explosion of discontent over everything from high crime to poor education to the high cost of hosting the upcoming World Cup and Olympics in Brazil.
The lack of much organization or concrete demands behind the protests has made a unified government response nearly impossible. Several cities have cancelled the transit fare hikes that had originally sparked the demonstrations a week ago, but the outrage has only grown more intense.
The one group behind the reversal of the transit fare hike, the Free Fare Movement, said on Friday it would not call any more protests. However, it wasn’t clear what impact that might have on a movement that has moved far beyond its original complaint.
“Dilma Rousseff and (Brasilia Gov.) Agnelo Queiroz are the epitome of Brazilian rulers,” wrote political commentator Fernando Rodrigues in the country’s biggest newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo.
“They embody the perplexity and the lack of leadership capabilities of several parties’ politicians vis-a-vis the new phenomena of protests without leaders or defined proposals. … It seems they are just waiting and hoping the tsunami will end.”
Gilberto Carvalho, the secretary general of the presidency, provided little direction Friday after a meeting to discuss Pope Francis’ planned July visit.
“We can’t anticipate the future,” Carvalho said. “We don’t know what it’s going to be like. Perhaps things will not be so intense (as the recent protests) but we have to be prepared for anything.”
Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota hit back at protesters the morning after his modernist ministry building was attacked by an enraged crowd. At one point, smoke billowed from the building and windows were shattered along its perimeter.
Standing before the battered ministry, he told reporters he “was very angry” that protesters attacked a structure “that represents the search for understanding through dialogue.” Patriota called for protesters “to convey their demands peacefully.”
“I believe that the great majority of the protesters are not taking part in this violence and are instead looking to improve Brazil’s democracy via legitimate forms of protest,” Patriota said.
The majority of protesters have been peaceful, and crowds have taken to chanting “No violence! No violence!” when small groups have prepared to burn and smash. The more violent demonstrators have taken over once night has fallen.
Protesters and police clashed in several cities into the early hours Friday.
At least one protester was killed in Sao Paulo state when a driver apparently became enraged about being unable to travel along a street and rammed his car into a group of demonstrators.
In Rio de Janeiro, where an estimated 300,000 demonstrators poured into the seaside city’s center, running clashes played out between riot police and clusters of mostly young men with T-shirts wrapped around their faces. But peaceful protesters were also caught up in the fray, too, as police fired tear gas canisters into their midst and at times indiscriminately used pepper spray.
At least 40 people were injured in Rio, including protesters such as Michele Menezes, a wisp of a woman whose youthful face and braces belied her 26 years. Bleeding and with her hair singed from the explosion of a tear gas canister, she said she and others took refuge from the violence in an open bar, only to have a police officer toss the canister inside.
The blast ripped through Menezes’ jeans, tearing two coin-sized holes on the back of her thighs, and peppered her upper arm with a rash of small holes.
“I was leaving a peaceful protest and it’s not the thugs that attack me but the police themselves,” said Menezes, removing her wire-rim glasses to wipe her bloodshot eyes.
She later took refuge in a hotel, along with about two dozen youths, families and others who said they had been repeatedly hit with pepper spray by motorcycle police as they also sheltered inside a bar.
Protesters said they would not back down.
“I saw some pretty scary things, but they’re not going to shake me. There’s another march on the 22nd and I’m going to be there,” said 19-year-old university student Fernanda Szuster.
Asked if her parents knew she was joining in the protests, Szuster said: “They know and they’re proud. They also protested when they were young. So they think it’s great.”
Clashes were also reported in the Amazon jungle city of Belem, Porto Alegre in the south, the university town Campinas north of Sao Paulo, the northeastern city of Salvador and dozens of other towns.
The protests took place one week after a violent police crackdown on a small demonstration against an increase in bus and subway fares in Sao Paulo galvanized Brazilians to take their grievances to the streets.
The unrest is hitting the nation as it hosts the Confederations Cup soccer tournament, with tens of thousands of foreign visitors in attendance.
Mass protests have been rare in this country of 190 million people in recent years, and the mushrooming demonstrations of the past week caught Brazilian government officials by surprise while delighting many citizens.
Despite the energy on the street, many protesters said they were unsure how the movement would win real political concessions.
“This is the start of a structural change in Brazil,” said Aline Campos, a 29-year-old publicist in Brasilia. “People now want to make sure their money is well spent, that it’s not wasted through corruption.”