Protests in Brazil

This item appears on page 17 of the December 2013 issue.

Street protests over teacher pay and the increased cost for public transport became violent and destructive in Rio de Janeiro and in Sao Paulo, Brazil, during October. 

Although many of the thousands of protesters in the street marches were peaceful, a smaller group of masked men, known as the Black Bloc anarchist group, were accused of using the protests to burn buses, set fires to banks, vandalize stores and start riots. Police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.