Wave of protests continue across Brazil

With no sign of a let-up in the wave of the protests sweeping across Brazil, authorities in various cities have started to cave in to demonstrators' demands by reversing recent increases in public transport fares.

Anger at the rising cost of using overcrowded and dilapidated buses and trains sparked the demonstrations but it is unclear if the climbdown by authorities will bring them to an end now that marchers have started attacking endemic political corruption and the staging of next year's football World Cup.

Yesterday about 50,000 demonstrators clashed with police outside the stadium where Brazil was due to play Mexico in the Confederations Cup, Fifa's dress rehearsal for next year's World Cup. They were protesting the spiralling cost of the event and demanding more investment in public services.

On Tuesday 50,000 people marched through São Paulo, bringing much of Brazil's financial capital to a standstill for the second consecutive night.

While the main demonstration passed off peacefully, small groups of masked anarchists attempted to invade the mayor’s office. Unable to enter they set a nearby television van and police post on fire before destroying two bank branches. When the police failed to appear more generalised looting broke out, much of it by crack addicts living rough in the city centre.

After several hours of disturbances riot police were deployed for the first time since last week, when their heavy- handedness against peaceful protesters was widely criticised, forcing the government to withdraw them from the streets.

Historic demonstrations
The latest protests follow Monday's historic demonstrations which brought 250,000 people on to the streets of a dozen cities in the biggest show of political discontent in more than two decades.

Facing the worst crisis of her presidency, Dilma Rousseff flew to São Paulo on Tuesday night for emergency talks as the federal government sought to help the city's mayor to find a way to reverse the fare hike that sparked the protests. But yesterday morning demonstrators cut several key access routes on the edge of the city causing further disruption.

Despite the attempts to meet demonstrators’ demands more marches are being organised online for later this week across the country.

The governor of Minas Gerais, Brazil's second biggest state whose capital Belo Horizonte is hosting three Confederations Cup games, asked the federal government to send in the elite federal police unit to help maintain order.

With the tournament increasingly overshadowed by the demonstrations and mounting anger at the cost of staging next year’s World Cup, Fifa has been placed on the defensive.

World Cup costs
In an interview with Brazilian television. the organisation's president Sepp Blatter said: "Brazil asked for this World Cup. We did not impose it on Brazil."

Latest government figures show Brazil will spend €9.5 billion on hosting the event, equivalent to the total spent by Japan, South Korea, Germany and South Africa combined on the last three editions of the tournament.