Rio Gringa

What Do Brazil's March 15 Protests Mean?

Here are just some of the many questions inspired by Brazil's March 15 nationwide anti-government protests, the largest to take place in the country since the 2013 protests.

Why should people protest? Are protests valid if demonstrators are largely white and middle class? Were all of today's protestors middle class? Are protests legitimate if their demands are unreasonable? Are protests useful if they lack a coherent, central demand? What constitutes a legal reason for impeachment? What does a civil political debate look like? Is asking for an impeachment process unreasonable? Is it okay to criticize a political party you consider yourself part of? Why are people calling for a return to the dictatorship? Are opposition supporters just being sore losers?

Even the crowd counts showed evidence of conflicting visions of today's events. Crowd estimates varied within cities; São Paulo numbers ranged from 210,000 to 1 million, for example. But overall, it's estimated that hundreds of thousands turned out nationwide. Totals range between 1 and 2 million.

Some protestors spoke out against corruption, and some demanded the president's impeachment. A minority went so far as to ask for military intervention and the dismantling of government institutions. Meanwhile, today marked the 30-year anniversary of the end of Brazil's military dictatorship.

The protests came during an increasingly tense political atmosphere in the wake of one of the country's closest presidential elections last October. But it's also the result of mounting tensions of more than a decade of leadership by the Workers' Party, along with an ever-evolving corruption scandal, a weakened economy and a stagnant quality of life.

The demonstrations were marked by the increasingly bitter and vitriolic political dialogue in the country, with some PT loyalists accusing protestors of being golpistas, in favor of overthrowing the government, and accusations against the PT of communism by some on the right.

There were also signs of cognitive dissonance: those marching in favor of military intervention (who wouldn't have the freedom to protest under authoritarianism), and those using Brazilian Soccer Federation jerseys to protest against corruption.

But all in all, what do the day's events indicate?

First, on the positive side, I think it's a sign that Brazilian democracy is alive and well 30 years in. Demonstrations on this scale are significant in a country like Brazil, which doesn't see huge protests on a regular basis like some of its neighbors. And while it's disturbing and even laughable to see people asking for military intervention, the fact that people can even say things like that publicly stems from their ability to exercise to free speech. The big turnout could also be seen as a response to complaints about "slacktivism" and sticking to social media to express political dissent.

It's also good to see people making demands of their leaders, even if they are vague demands. After the protests, two government ministers went on TV to recognize the day's events and to announce upcoming anti-corruption measures. One would expect people to make demands given the president's approval rating, measured at around 23 percent in February by Datafolha. In other words, the opposition may be shouting loudest, but not many people are happy with the president on either side of the aisle.

On the other hand, political literacy is lacking. It's not clear that all pro-impeachment protestors understand the process involved about who would actually take over in the event of an impeachment. One foreigner reporter found that to be the case:

Only one of the dozen protesters I interviewed understood the legal basis for impeachment. The rest just knew they were fed up with…

— Alex Cuadros (@AlexCuadros) March 15, 2015

- me: "If Dilma is impeached, do you think Michel Temer will be better?" - protester: "You mean he wouldn't be impeached along with her?"

— Alex Cuadros (@AlexCuadros) March 15, 2015

Plus, the fact that impeachment has emerged as a rallying cry for the right indicates a lack of ideas and proposals to make immediate changes in governance.

Acho ótimo que haja protestos de todos os lados no Brasil. O acesso ao protesto nós conseguimos. O desafio agora é a qualidade. Urgente.

— Mauricio Savarese (@MSavarese) March 15, 2015

On the flip side, those who accuse impeachment supporters of being coup-supporters show a lack of understanding or positioning about the constitutional legality of impeachment. In fact, impeachment has happened before, to President Fernando Collor de Mello in the 1990s. 

Debates over today's protests were also indicative of the level of political dialogue that has been going on since last year. People have lost friends and squabbled with family members over politics in these debates, and these demonstrations provided a new forum for political arguments.

The big take-away for me is that some are still unhappy with the status quo, even more so than in 2013. It's not just about being upset about the election, or about the value of the real, or about being sick of the PT. It's about being dissatisfied with the country's direction. And the truth is that the president isn't just facing critics on the right: she's facing them on the left, too.

This, like it or not, is what democracy is all about. There's a lot of debate and disagreements, and sometimes they're really bitter. But it also means you can express your views freely, no matter how logical or unreasonable they may be. The next step is coming up with solutions in addition to complaints.

Political Discontent in Brazil: Will New Protests Pan Out?

A week before scheduled nationwide protests calling for the president's impeachment, Dilma Rousseff gave a major televised address met with booing, horn-honking, insults, and pot-banging in several cities throughout the country. 

The president gave a speech on the country's austerity measures, asking for patience with the economy and blaming Brazil's woes on a historic drought and an international slow-down. She made just one mention of Petrobras, the country's embattled state-run oil company at the heart of a massive corruption scandal.

The address was met with "balcony protests" in various neighborhoods in cities throughout Brazil. There were widespread reports in São Paulo, as well as Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, and Goiânia. Some protestors yelled, "Fora Dilma!" (Get out, Dilma), as well as profanity. #VaiaDilma (Boo Dilma) was the top trending topic in Brazil this evening, and also made the top 10 global trending topics. Videos of reactions to Rousseff's speech spread quickly on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Whatsapp, and Snapchat.

"The Planalto should understand that what happened on Sunday in São Paulo should serve as a warning about the deterioration of the political situation that could hurt Dilma and the Workers' Party," wrote political journalist Kennedy Alencar on his blog.

Brazil remains politically divided after one of the closest presidential elections in recent history, with the president's approval rating falling to 23 percent in February. Meanwhile, protests in favor of impeaching Rousseff are scheduled for March 15, a plan which has spread on social media.

There are numerous Facebook invitations to the demonstrations, each with over 100,000 people signed up to attend. One has around 230,000 people RSVPed, and another has nearly the same amount. A third event listing protest times and locations in 18 cities has around 135,000 people who say they will participate.

Political tensions are mounting amid concerns over the economy and the Petrobras scandal, and public anger toward the ruling party during election season has lingered.

For example, an online petition demanding Rousseff's impeachment has reached nearly 2 million signatures. Last month, a video surfaced of Rousseff's former finance minister quickly leaving a public hospital in São Paulo after getting heckled. The same month, a group of protestors interrupted an event during Rousseff's first official trip of her second term, yelling "impeachment!"

While it's unclear how many people will actually hit the streets next Sunday, reactions to the pot-banging "protests" today indicated just how politically fractured the country is. It seems Brazilians can't even agree on how to express their political discontent.

Because many of the reported pot-banging demonstrations took place in wealthy and middle-class neighborhoods, some on social media dismissed them as isolated incidents among the rich. Critics joked that the protesters had to call their maids to find out where their pots were stored, or simply couldn't find pans to use.

Paneleiros pic.twitter.com/8jMor1ZGDI

— rodrigo vianna (@rvianna) March 9, 2015

Meanwhile, others in favor of the protests spread videos and underscored the number of cities with reports of demonstrations. Others used the so-called panelaço to encourage people to show up to the impeachment demonstrations on March 15. Some people were circulating photos like these on Twitter to try to show that it's not just the rich who oppose Rousseff.

Eu também tenho #vergonha #DilmaNaoMeRepresenta #VaiaDilma #VAIACO #foradilma #forapt pic.twitter.com/AgBE7Vd3GY

— Natália Batista (@AdvNatalia) March 9, 2015

São Paulo-based journalist José Roberto Toledo wrote on Twitter: "Political division is also geographic. Those who heard the pots today live in areas where Aécio won in 2014. It was intense. Extensive? We'll see on March 15."

A divisão política é também geográfica. Quem ouviu panelas hoje mora onde Aécio ganhou em 2014. Foi intenso. Extenso? A ver no dia 15.

— Jose Roberto Toledo (@zerotoledo) March 9, 2015

Bruno Torturra, a São Paulo journalist known for his past work with Mídia Ninja, wrote on Facebook: "The phenomenon isn't explained by social class alone, and it's apparent that it just aggravates this inflammatory and precipitated reaction from those on the left who were offended by the shouting...this country is impregnated by hate."

Meanwhile, Brasília-based journalist Vicente Nunes said that those close to the president were taken aback by the reactions to Rousseff's speech. "The Planalto is in panic about the spontaneous reaction to President Dilma. The president's advisors say they're perplexed."

Palácio do Planalto está em pânico com reação espontânea contra a presidente Dilma. Assessores da presidente se dizem perplexos.

— Vicente Nunes (@vicentenunes) March 9, 2015

Political scientist Maurício Santoro, based in Rio, wrote on Twitter: "You don't need to be a pro-coup extremist to be frustrated and angry. The president needs to respond to the population's legitimate wishes."

Não é preciso ser extremista pró-golpe para estar frustrado e com raiva. Presidente precisa dar resposta aos anseios legítimos da população.

— Maurício Santoro (@msantoro1978) March 9, 2015

São Paulo-based entrepreneur and blogger Marco Gomes shared his frustration with the evening's events. "I think protests in apartment windows are interesting, since they demonstrate dissatisfaction that I, too, feel. At the same time, I think it's pathetic not to actually [protest] in the street."

Acho interessante o protesto das janelas dos aptos, demonstra uma insatisfação que tb sinto. Ao mesmo tempo, acho patético não ir p/ a rua.

— Marco Gomes (@marcogomes) March 9, 2015

And there remains the question. Brazil's 2013 protests took many by surprise. But given increasing political tensions, the marches scheduled for March 15 could gather real numbers, considering the emotions seen tonight. Or they could completely fizzle if people aren't interested in leaving the house. We'll find out next Sunday.

Update 3/9: Added Bruno Torturra quote.

Image: Screenshot, Brasilia panelaço video.

Stopgap Trash Clean-up Stalls in Rio's Guanabara Bay

One of the big concerns ahead of Rio's 2016 Olympics is whether the city's waterways will be cleaned up enough to safely hold water sports events, such as sailing, rowing and swimming. The truth is that the Olympics were an opportunity to address a decades-old problem and to find sustainable solutions so that Cariocas themselves can enjoy their cities beaches, bay and lagoons without fearing skin diseases, gastrointestinal problems, or crashing into rusting refrigerators.

That prospect is looking even more unlikely.

Last month, Rio Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão insisted the city is on target to reach its Olympic clean-up goal, after another official said it wouldn't be possible. Pezão says 80 percent of the city's sewage will be treated by mid-2016, and claims Rio is already treating nearly 50 percent.

These comments came shortly before the state environmental agency launched an investigation into a massive fish die-off in the bay, with thousands of twaite shad floating in the water. (A similar die-off occurred in November 2014, which some specialists attributed to the region's drought.)

Treating sewage is one of the major goals of the clean-up, but so is preventing 80 to 100 tons of garbage from entering the bay every single day. Two stopgap measures to address this as part of the Olympics clean-up effort include eco-boats, tasked with trawling and removing trash from waterways, and eco-barriers, lines of floating plastic in the city's rivers to stop the flow of trash into the ocean and lagoons.

But even those efforts are faltering, according to a report in yesterday's O Globo.

According to the newspaper, the state government stopped paying the eco-boat operators, and they have ceased working altogether. The 10 eco-boats are able to remove around 45 tons of trash per month. The government is about four months behind in payments, and owes around half a million reais. The eco-boat's contract with the government is estimated at R$1.8 million for 2015.

Plus, the city's supermarket association was sponsoring the eco-barrier efforts, but it pulled the funding. As a result, of the 14 eco-barrier structures operating in 2012, there are only 7 left. In 2012, the barriers were capturing up to 900 tons of trash a month; now, it's only 150 tons per month.

Image: An eco-boat in Rio. Rio government/public domain from the Programa de Saneamento dos Municípios do Entorno da Baía de Guanabara.

The Immigration Reporting Project

As I wrote in January, I'm spending the next year working on my Masters in a brand-new journalism program. During the program, I'll be working on a reporting project, and I've decided to focus on undocumented Latin American immigrants living in the United States.

For the project, I'll be doing original reporting, which you'll be able to follow on the project's Medium. I published my first story last night. For this story, I interviewed immigrants who commented on Obama's immigration town hall last week on Twitter. I put together a Storify of some of the most interesting questions and comments, and then I reached out to many of those people to do interviews. The stories I heard were quite diverse: from a Uruguayan high school kid in Georgia worried about his undocumented parents to a Venezuelan who actually has a green card but is fighting deportation due to a decade-old misdemeanor conviction.

One of the people I spoke to was a Venezuelan immigrant in Florida who became a U.S. citizen and and then got started on legalizing her Brazilian husband's status. Two days after she sent in the paperwork, her husband Marcos was in a car accident and was taken into immigration detention after police called ICE. He was deported last month to São Paulo.

I couldn't fit all the details in the story, which I wrote for my reporting class and was supposed to only be 700 words. So here's another extra tidbit. The woman, named Maria Martinez, actually had her question about her husband asked during the town hall, since the host took questions from Twitter. Obama then responded to her.

Maria told me that she sent a video of Obama's response to her husband on Whatsapp, since she was so excited that the president found out about their case. Her husband responded: "Tudo vai dar certo." Her 10-year-old son also saw Obama's response, and asked: "Does this mean Marcos can come back?"

If these stories interest you, check out the article, and be sure to follow me on Medium.

Also, I will also be sharing interesting, touching, and inspiring immigration stories on the project's Facebook and Twitter, so be sure to follow there, too.