Protests as Brazil stars arrive at World Cup camp

Teachers who demand better working condtions block the Brazilian national football players' bus way, near Rio de Janeiro's international airport, as it heads towards the squad's base at Teresopolis in the hills north of Rio, Brazil, on May 26, 2014 (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

Teresópolis (#Brazil) (AFP) - Dodging 200 striking teachers, Brazil's #WorldCup squad headed for their tournament headquarters Monday, seeking football glory against a backdrop of social tension at the cost of staging the event.

"An educator is worth more than Neymar" -- Brazil's star striker -- the teachers chanted as the team bus headed from Rio de Janeiro's international airport towards the squad's base about 90 kilometers (60 miles) away at Teresopolis in the hills north of Rio.

Despite a heavy police presence the demonstrators managed to hold up proceedings long enough to plant anti-World Cup stickers on the vehicle before the bus finally eased past the throng.

At the squad's Granja Comary training complex, where they were met by more protests, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said his charges have what it takes to win the country's sixth World Cup.

"We have a great mix (of youth and experience). The young players have experience having played at the top level in Europe," he told Globo television as he waited for his squad to arrive.

To ensure Brazil have the best possible conditions in which to prepare, the Brazilian Football Confederation earlier this year gave the training complex a multimillion-dollar facelift.

But such luxurious details have angered a populace demanding urgent investment in sagging infrastructure, health and education.The facilities include 39 individual rooms with king-size beds and several full-size pitches where Scolari will prepare the team before they play the opening match of the tournament against Croatia in Sao Paulo on June 12.

A small group of protesters gathered outside the Granja Comary facility, where one banner read, in English: "Billions for the FIFA World Cup, no housing for the victims of the heavy rains (of) 2011. Do you think it is fair?"

Torrential rains claimed more than 900 lives in the Teresopolis region days after President Dilma Rousseff took office.

Rosangela Castro, a local teacher, said: "It is a real scandal they spent more than 15 million reais ($7 million) to refurbish this training center and billions on the World Cup."

Police will stand guard 24 hours a day at Granja Comary to ward off any trouble.

Brazil has been hit by a wave of strikes and protests ahead of the World Cup and elections in October. Police, teachers, bank security guards and bus drivers have staged disruptive strikes in recent weeks. --AFP

Brazil police clash with anti-World Cup protesters

Members of the Homeless Workers Movement protest against the money spent on the World Cup near Itaquerao stadium that will host the international soccer tournament's first match in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday, May 15, 2014.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Protesters and police clashed in Sao Paulo Thursday, as demonstrations against the World Cup and rallies calling for improved public services erupted in several Brazilian cities.

Officers in #Brazil's largest city fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who set piles of trash alight to barricade a central avenue. Demonstrators blasted the billions spent to host next month's soccer tournament and said they wanted to draw attention to what they called a lack of investment to improve poor public services.

"We are beginning to gain strength to go against the injustices of the #WorldCup," said Luana Gurther, a social sciences student. "We are the ones who should decide where the public money goes. More funding for schools, hospitals, housing, transportation— not the Cup."

Gurther and thousands of other mostly young protesters gathered on a main business avenue in the city of 11 million, loudly beating drums and cans and raising banners with messages such as "less money for the Cup and more for housing." Protesters staged a soccer game with dirty tactics, and one man put on a costume of a giant skeleton dressed as a Brazil player.

While widespread, the rallies were far smaller than the protests that engulfed the nation last year.
Thursday's demonstrations blocked two key roads into Sao Paulo during the morning commute. Outside the new stadium that will host the opening match of the Cup, about 1,500 activists fighting for more housing waved Brazilian flags as black smoke rose from the flames burning tires.

"Our goal is symbolic. We don't want to destroy or damage the stadium," said Guilherme Boulos, head of the Homeless Workers Movement, whose activists gathered at Itaquerao Stadium on the eastern outskirts of Sao Paulo. "What we want are more rights for workers to have access to housing and to show the effects the Cup has brought to the poor."

The group claims many people have been forced out of their homes because of rising rents in the neighborhood around the new stadium.

Police blocked the main entrance next to a construction zone where cranes and other machines were lined up to carry materials still needed to finish the soccer arena.

As night fell, rallies were held in Rio de Janeiro, causing chaos for traffic in the center of the city.
In the capital Brasilia, protesters carried banners reading "FIFA Go Home," while in another Cup host city Belo Horizonte, about 2,000 people took to the streets to complain of the soccer tournament.

In northeastern Brazil, looters ransacked stores in the World Cup host city of Recife, where a police strike led to lawlessness. Police there entered the third day of a strike for a 50 percent pay hike. Authorities said they'd already decided to cancel two professional league soccer matches slated for this weekend in the city.
"They are obviously using the proximity of the World Cup to pressure us to give into their demands," government press officer Manoel Guimaraes for the state of Pernambusco, home to Recife.
Recife will host five World Cup matches, starting on June 14.

The demonstrations Thursday were being watched as a test of the government's ability to maintain security during the World Cup.

Huge anti-government protests across Brazil last year overshadowed the Confederations Cup, a warm-up tournament for the World Cup. Many of the demonstrations saw clashes between activists and police, and at least six people were killed.

Many Brazilians are angry at the billions spent to host the World Cup. Protesters have said the government should focus spending instead on improving Brazil's woeful health, education, security and infrastructure systems.

Brazilian leaders had hoped the World Cup and then the 2016 Olympics in Rio would put a favorable spotlight on the country, showing advances over the past decade in improving its economy and pulling tens of millions out of poverty.
Source: MSN News