Brazil riot police teargas bus fare-rise protesters amid mass clashes (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

A demonstration demanding free public transportation ended with a riot at a bus station in Brazil’s Sao Paulo. At least six people have been arrested as riot police used tear gas to disperse the protesters.
The violence culminated a protest march Friday, which lasted for some three hours. Part of a crowd of hundreds of demonstrator broke off and attacked a bus terminal in Sao Paulo’s center, police said.
The rioters set on fire a bust and destroyed cash and ticket machines. Police says many of the masked vandals at the station were members of the so-called Black Bloc anarchist group.
Riot police used tear gas and batons against the protesters. A police colonel was hit on the head by a rock amid the clashes, Brazilian media reported.

A masked demonstrator throws a stone against a bus after a demonstration against rising public transport costs and demanding better public services in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on October 25, 2013. (AFP Photo/Nelson Almeida)

The confrontation continued elsewhere in the city, when some people fled from the bus station and erected barricades.
A hike in bus fares triggered massive protest demonstrations in Brazil in June, when millions of people took to the streets to voice their anger at corruption, poor public services and government spending on projects like hosting the 2014 World Cup football tournament.
Friday’s march in Sao Paulo comes on the same day that President Dilma Rousseff announced a $2.4 billion plan to improve public transportation in the city.

People protest against rising public transport costs and demanding better public services in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on October 25, 2013. (AFP Photo/Nelson Almeida)

An autobus burns after a demonstration against rising public transport costs and demanding better public services in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on October 25, 2013. (AFP Photo/Nelson Almeida)

Masked demonstrators vandalize bank ATM machines following a demonstration against rising public transport costs and demanding better public services in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on October 25, 2013. (AFP Photo/Nelson Almeida)

Rio deploys troops, navy ships ahead of hotly contested oil field auction

Over 1000 troops have been deployed in Rio de Janeiro ahead of a major oil rights auction. The move to partially sell off Brazil’s most promising oil reserves has been met with opposition, triggering mass strikes and disruption to oil production.
A spokesperson from the Brazilian army said that around 1,100 troops are being deployed around the Hotel Windsor in West Rio where the auction will be staged. Two naval ships will also be anchored in front of the hotel. Officers will be equipped with non-lethal weapons and riot armor.
“Intelligence officers and security cameras will be monitoring the areas around the hotel to warn of possible protest, guaranteeing the security of the public,” a spokesperson told Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
Security sources told the news website G1 that the area around the hotel will be cordoned off during the auction.
The increase in security was ordered by Brazil’s President, Dilma Rousseff, in the wake of last week’s violent protest again the oil auction. Moreover, the auction’s organizers fear the event could be further disrupted by disgruntled oil workers who have been on strike for the last 4 days.
A group of strikers has camped out next to state-owned oil company Petrobras, waving placards saying “No to privatization.”
Furthermore, workers at over 40 oil platforms are striking against what they view as a step towards privatizing Brazil’s massive oil wealth. However, analysts say the workers’ strike may have more to do with a wage dispute.
“The strike . . . has more to do with wage negotiations than opposition to the Libra pre-salt auction itself, even though the latter is important for the more radical elements of the trade unions,” said João Augusto de Castro Neves, an analyst with Eurasia Group to the Financial Times. 

Brazilian oil industry workers on strike demonstrate against the auction of Libra oil field in Sao Paulo, Brazil on October 17, 2013. (AFP Photo/Nelson Almeida)

The Libra oil field, which is up for auction, is believed to hold Brazil’s largest pre-salt oil reserves. Current estimates say it could hold up to 12 billion barrels of crude, attracting over $180 billion in investment over the next 35 years.
In spite of protests criticizing the Brazilian government for selling off the nation’s wealth to the highest bidder, officials maintain that this is not a step towards privatization.
Minister of Mines and Energy Edison Lobao said Brazil was doing quite the opposite and “exploiting the immense wealth in the ground under the sea.”
According to the current conditions placed on the auction, Brazilian state-run oil giant Petrobras will have sole operator status at the oil field and a minimum of 41.6 per cent of oil produced will go to the Brazilian state.
“We don’t know how many organizations are going to participate in this auction. The important thing is that there are participants,” Lobao told O Globo.
Among the 11 companies expected to take part in the bidding are some of the world’s oil heavyweights, including the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Spain’s Repsol, Colombia's Ecopetrol and China’s Sinopec.
The US oil giants have shied away from the auction, discouraged by the conditions imposed on the auction by the Brazilian government.  
The Libra oil field was discovered by Brazil in 2010 and effectively doubled Brazil’s oil reserves.

Drug gangs battle Brazilian police for favelas

Drug gangs battle Brazilian police for favelas


Brazilian Police have raided several favelas (slums) following days of intense violence in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The police are blaming the violence on drug gangs. More than 25 people have been killed including innocent bystanders, as rival gangs are working together to fight the police. Asia Times Correspondent Pepe Escobar says this has been the key problem in Brazil, it was considered a "no man's land" that the government forgot about because the drug cartel's overran the local area.

US behind regime changes around the world

US behind regime changes around the world .


As Washington's overt support of brutal dictators became too much for Americans to stomach, it was replaced with a new concept for regime change called democracy promotion. US taxpayer's are bearing the burden, as taxpayer money has been widely used to overthrow governments around the world. Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar says in the past two or three months corporate press in Brazil has opposed Dilma Rousseff, Lula de Silva's protégé, indirectly supported by NED and Freedom House

Will Rousseff continue in Lula's footsteps?

Will Rousseff continue in Lula's footsteps?

More than 100 million Brazilians came out to vote for Dilma Rousseff; electing Brazil's first female president. Rousseff has promised to continue her predecessor's (Lula de Silva) policies but there are still many issues that linger. In Brazil many impoverished farmers are fighting for their right to live their life and sustain themselves. Reporter Pepe Escobar from The Asia Times believes that the upper class in Brazil is trying to expel peasants to the cities to create a work force that will make exported commodities.

The cost of your food: people's lives

The cost of your food: people's lives

The cheap imported food that you eat doesn't come without a cost. The rise of agribusiness has been uprooting the small indigenous farmers in countries like Brazil for decades. In Brazil, it's benefiting rich land owners and transnational corporations while small farmers have been forced off their land and into cities for hopeless lives in the favela, searching for jobs that never came. But a huge social movement with broad political support is helping some of these landless workers get their lives back. We go to a commune where they are growing their own food and living a sustainable socialist life, escaping the capitalism that has oppressed them.

Brazil's Silent Revolution

Brazil's Silent Revolution

In a country characterized by a a vast divide between the haves and have nots, the poor are making a comeback. Brazil's social program Bolsa Familia has helped lift millions out of poverty, narrowing the divide between rich and poor, fueling the rise of one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. What can the rest of the globe learn from the success of a once depressed and self-consious country?