Brazilian cities rocked by rioting

One million protesters took to the streets in scores of cities, with clusters clashing violently with police during anti-government demonstrations.

President Dilma Rousseff, who has been virtually mute in the face of the most violent protests in recent memory, called the meeting after sharp criticism in Brazil’s media for what many called her lack of any leadership.

There have been growing calls on social media and in emails for a general strike next week.

Standing before the battered government building he presides over, Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said 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,” Mr Patriota said.

Despite the violence, the majority of protesters have been peaceful. In massive demonstrations through this week, as small groups began to vandalise, crowds would often turn and start to chant, “No violence! No violence!” But the pattern in cities across the huge nation has been that once night falls, the violence begins. Protesters and police clashed in several cities into the early hours yesterday, as people vented anger over a litany of complaints, from high taxes to corruption to rising prices.

At least one protester was killed in Sao Paulo state when a car rammed into a crowd of demonstrators after the driver apparently became enraged about being unable to drive along a street.

In Rio de Janeiro, where an estimated 300,000 demonstrators poured into the seaside city’s central area, running clashes played out between riot police and clusters of mostly young men with T-shirts wrapped around their faces. But peaceful protesters were caught up in the fray, too, as police fired tear gas canisters into their midst and at times indiscriminately used pepper spray.

Thundering booms echoed off stately colonial buildings as rubber bullets and gas were fired at fleeing crowds.

At least 40 people were injured in Rio, including protesters like Michele Menezes, 26. 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. 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,” said 19-year-old university student Fernanda Szuster.

In Brasilia, the national capital, police struggled to keep hundreds of protesters from invading the Foreign Ministry and the crowd set a small fire outside. Other government buildings were attacked around the city’s central esplanade. There, too, police used tear gas and rubber bullets trying to scatter demonstrators.

The unrest is hitting the nation as it hosts the Confederations Cup soccer tournament, attended by thousands of foreign fans. It also comes one month before Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Brazil, and ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, raising concerns about how Brazilian officials will provide security.