Brazil's president attempts to deal with massive protests
(Vatican Radio) Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is holding a crisis meeting on Friday
with her Cabinet to try to diffuse the biggest nationwide protets in more than twenty
years. Rousseff has cancelled a trip to Japan to stay and tackle a home grown crisis
which is spreading and becoming more serious by the hour.
Protest marches
against corruption, bus hikes, the spiralling cost of next year's soccer World Cup
and the Olympics two years later, are gathering momentum.
The unrest is overshadowing
the Confederations soccer Cup, which is already underway in Brazil. And serious questions
are now being asked about the forthcoming World Cup.
One demonstrator was
killed in Sao Paulo when a car careered into a crowd, while in Rio dozens have been
injured in clashes with riot police. In the capitol Brasilia, a bonfire was started
outside the Foreign Ministry building. Since then public buildings have been cordoned
off.
Earlier this week, President Rousseff said she admired protesters striving
for a better Brazil. That admiration is evidently not mutual.