The Pope, Pilgrims, Protesters and Police.
Rio is a very strange place right now. For the last few days the city has been filling up with tens of thousands of Catholic pilgrims wearing bright yellow “World Youth Day” t-shirts and smiles. By yesterday morning the hordes were everywhere (including my bus to work…) and the feeling of growing excitement was palpable (not that I was sharing in the excitement you understand, but I could still sense it in these groups of frenzied visitors).
Hordes of happy pilgrims have been swarming across the city.
TV Globo broadcast live footage of the Pope’s arrival: nervous last minute preparations at the airport, his plane touching down and finally, after an interminable wait, the man himself. As he made his way down the red carpet he greeted people and everything seemed (to me at least) utterly unremarkable.
Then his car arrived.
What vehicle would you expect the Pope to take? The 45 minute drive from the airport to downtown Rio seems a bit too much for the Popemobile, so I was expecting one of those black limousines that VIPs routinely take. What actually showed up was a small grey Fiat Idea 1.6! No armour plating, no bullet-proof windows, nothing!
Off we go!
I had heard that, to his credit, Pope Francisco was doing away with a lot of the pomp and ostentation that the previous pope was so fond of, so I guess this low-key transport should not have been unexpected. However, what happened next was very unexpected indeed!
As the TV helicopter tracked the car making its way along the main road from the airport into town, you could see that the Pope had wound down his window to wave at people along the side of the road. All of a sudden the traffic slowed and people started flocking around the car. More and more people ran over and suddenly you could see that (from a security perspective) something had gone seriously wrong.
The security guards had completely lost control of the situation and were frantically trying to keep people away from the car. As the car crawled through the traffic, it was surrounded by vast numbers of people desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the Pope:
Apparently the driver had taken a wrong turn and missed the road that had been cleared for the Pope’s journey. All credit to Francisco though – despite the panicking security guards, he appeared completely unflustered!
Personally I’ve got no problem with the current Pope as an individual – he definitely seems like an improvement on the last one. However, I don’t know how anyone who’s seen Mea Maxima Culpa – Silence in the House of God can be anything other than deeply suspicious of the organisation that he represents.
Protests
One of the main motivations behind the protests which began last month was dissatisfaction with public spending priorities. The Confederations Cup highlighted the huge amounts of money that had been spent on stadiums for the World Cup. Now the Pope is visiting at a cost of around 350 million Reais (US$ 160 million) so further protests were to be expected. Of course, from a protester’s point of view, being in the world media spotlight doesn’t hurt either.
As well as the now familiar protests against Cabral and corruption, yesterday also saw a Gay Rights protest which led to kisses staged on the steps of a church. I had been interested to see how the huge influx of Catholic pilgrims would interact with the ongoing protests. This excellent picture from O Globo says it all!
Isn’t it strange that a church which (secretly) acknowledges that many of its priests are homosexual would at the same time disapprove of other homosexuals who have the courage to proclaim their orientation without shame?
Later on, the gay rights protesters joined with other groups at Largo do Machado, just a short walk from Palácio Guanabara where the Pope was visiting President Dilma and other dignitaries. Most reports tell a familiar story of a peaceful protest that was observed for a period and then attacked by Military Police.
Apparently this time the Police attack was triggered by the Pope’s departure. Once he was out of the way they reportedly opened fire with rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas. Much was made of a Molotov cocktail that was thrown at police and caused one policeman to suffer burns.
Now I promise you I am not one to entertain conspiracy theories lightly, but I found this following clip quite compelling. This clip shows people generally shouting to stop the violence (“Para com isso!”) followed by a couple of guys, one of whom throws the petrol bomb. The video is low quality, but the second part of the clip shows two people consistent with the first two, running back through police lines and changing their clothes. I don’t call this proof, but I find it reasonably persuasive evidence. What do you think?
Military Police
“The authorities left, and the bombs started. They attacked people. I am Catholic. I saw this cowardice. I wanted to rip up this T-shirt,” she added, pointing to the World Youth Day T-shirt she was wearing. “It is disgusting.”
That quote comes from one of the World Youth Day participants and was taken from an article in the Guardian this morning. The article goes on:
Demonstrators said the police reaction was overwhelmingly aggressive. “Police attacked. People were overcome with despair. There was no way out. They wanted people to suffer terror,” said protestor Luiza Dreyer.
I’m sorry to say that from my own protest experience I know exactly what Luiza is talking about. There is a level of vindictiveness shown by the Military Police that is at times hard to fathom. The official Rio Military Police Twitter stream is also quite astounding, spouting a non-stop propaganda stream including:
- Photos of people they have arrested and including their full names and stating the crime they are alleged to have committed (how can that be legal?);
- Photos of their officers suffering the Molotov thrown by, ahem, ‘protesters’;
- This little gem: Quem posta material multimídia na Internet incentivando a violência e o vandalismo é criminoso. [Those who post multimedia material on the internet inciting violence and vandalism are criminals] – Hmmm, and who gets to decide what material is deemed to incite violence?
In a worrying step up in levels of intimidation, last Friday a well known Sociologist was snatched and threatened at gun point by Police Militia after criticising the Military Police in an interview with O Globo.
These protests don’t seem to be going away and although the situation is quite worrying at times, I suspect Brazil needs to go through this upheaval in order to achieve the reform that could help the country move onwards and upwards towards a fairer situation for all. While many protesters would love to cancel the upcoming ‘megaevents’ and divert the money to more worthy projects, perhaps we will one day look back and see that these very megaevents helped spur the protest that eventually changed this country for the better.
The Pope’s ride to the centro was silly and showed complete lack of planning by the govt. the entire area should have been blocked to buses and groupies (cause seriously none of them looked like they had any respect). They treated the Pope like Bieber, and even dumber, the Pope allowed it. Just from a safety and security standpoint, not smart.
Funny, he’s a Pope of the people yet his first act is to meet 600 of the elite.
Yes, the journey from the airport was an absolute shambles for sure. I thought the Pope handled it quite well though – if you’re going to be mobbed by adoring fans, surely better to smile and wave than to look angry or wave people away. I bet the security guards would have thanked him to close the damn window though! ;)
Good point about him meeting the elite – that hadn’t occurred to me.
Sounds as if the police are a lot better at attacking unarmed citizens than they are at protecting visiting dignitaries. Maybe it’s time for them to re-examine their priorities.
What did you think of Barbosa ignoring Dilma when greeting the Pope?
http://www.pbagora.com.br/conteudo.php?id=20130722222057&cat=politica&keys=joaquim-barbosa-deixa-dilma-vacuo-veja-video
A spokesman said that Barbosa had already greeted Dilma before the ceremony, so he saw no need to shake her hand again, but I thought it looked bad and it’s not as if he had to kiss her ring, just shake her hand. If he’s got a problem with her, there’s a time and place for that, but not in front of a guest.
Ah! I hadn’t seen that! It does look a bit odd that he didn’t even acknowledge her presence! I bet the Pope will get very used to seeing things like that though – all these formal meetings and events must bring political enemies (or just people with minor gripes) together all the time. Still, agreed that it’s not very good form from Barbosa.
It is a peaceful protest… But I’ll take some Molotov cocktails, just in case.
Sorry but I don’t believe in any protest of 1,000 people which is trying to take by force a democratic elected government over alledged, and unprooved, corruption. Specially when these protests are full of red flags from political parties that have lost the election.
Isn’t it funny that none of these protests nowadays says anything about Federal Government? Well the red flags explain why.
Hi Alexandre – I find your comment so bizarre that it’s hard to know if you’re being serious! Notwithstanding the fact that there is evidence to suggest that the Molotov Cocktails were actually thrown by police from P2, any fool can bring a weapon to a peaceful protest – does that invalidate the peaceful nature of the 99.9% majority?
And are you seriously saying that corruption is “alleged and unproven”? Not even the politicians themselves (well, anyone worth taking seriously) would deny that Brazil has a problem with corruption. Dilma has said it herself!
The paranoia over the Red Menace is utterly anachronistic and to suggest that the 1,000 people were trying to “take by force” a democratically elected government is laughable.
Tom, how do you explain that the so called “Black Bloc”, not only supports violence but admits of using violence as a political weapon? Bad quality videos don’t prove me anything that tons of other documents prove otherwise. Do you actually believe that there are covered up cops throwing homemade bombs at their own colleagues?
For the corruption, the largest scandal of corruption EVER in the history of the country had everyone convicted by STF (Brazilian Supreme Court) and no one has gone to jail. None of these protests today say anything about that. You know why? Many of the convicted politicians are idols of the Brazilian left (José Dirce, José Genoínio, etc;). And Lula’s involvement is clear.
If you try to understand a little bit of what Foro de São Paulo is, and how all left political parties in Latin America work, whether in Venezuela, Cuba or Argentina, you wouldn’t be calling my comment “bizarre” and “laughable”.
Video, regardless of the quality, is at least as reliable as undocumented implications that the Black Bloc was somehow involved in Monday’s events.
I’m not sure what the FSP has to do with any of this, but if you’re comparing Brazil’s PT to Cuba’s Communist Party, that allegation does seem bizarre.
Even if the protesters were not specifically complaining about the Mensalão scandal, that still does not make their complaints about government corruption invalid.
Here is another view of the video that you posted above. When the police try to arrest the ‘protestors’ others start shouting ‘polícia, polícia’ to warn them that these are undercover cops.
It certainly looks pretty dodgy but not a smoking gun. I wonder why, when those two are running back behind the lines, not more police try and stop them. What if they had been genuine protestors? I also wonder what the ordinary ranks of policeman would think and do if they knew that their own side was the one throwing molotov cocktails at them.
Thanks for the clip Jonny – interesting to get a better look from a different angle.
We were talking about this last night: would one set of cops be OK with throwing a molotov cocktail at their own people? Well, I get the impression that undercover policemen (known as P2 here) are used for exactly this kind of work. Interesting that Globo even covered this story today with their top reporters:
Videos raise hypothesis that Military Police infiltrated protest and attacked police with bomb
At the end of that article a forensic expert was asked his opinion of whether the people filmed throwing the bomb were the same to be shown later crossing the lines. He said:
“The details shown in the video can suggest that the tshirts are the same, however that information is inconclusive, because there is no clear view of the design on the tshirt”
Oh, and the Military Police has informed before this episode that some cops would go inside the protest, without uniform, in order to identify vandals. That explains the video.
It “explains the video”? Well, it explains the fact that some undercover cops were running back through the lines (the second part of the video). Your point doesn’t address the fact that there were similarities in appearance between the P2 police clearly running back into the police ranks and the ‘protesters’ filmed throwing the molotov cocktail.
Interesting that the PMERJ have been using all the images of the aftermath (flames and riot police) as part of their propaganda effort. When you see how much mileage they are getting from the molotov cocktail affair, it seems even more persuasive that they were involved.
We had The World Youth day in Madrid two years ago at the same time as massive protests by the 15-M movement. Curious to see its happening again.
It is strange that it’s happening again. Somehow I think it’s rather fitting too – regardless of their religion, all young people should be aware that all is not hunky dory in the world right now.
Btw, check this out (via the magazine Carta Capital) on the MPs and protests. Part of a recent article I translated.
http://eyesonbrazil.com/2013/07/24/how-far-will-cabrals-military-police-go/
Interesting article Adam! :)
More importantly, I was in Rio this week (bad timing) and the religious kids swarmed in and ate all the file mignon at one of my favourite butecos, so I couldn’t have the steak and cheese sandwich I had been looking forward to all day.
I was not pleased.
After getting trapped in Copacabana for 2 hours on Friday, I feel your pain GFE :)