Brazil President hails protests,offers no action plan,more demonstrations today

Protesters also marched down the streets and avenues in the Sao Paulo suburbs of Sao Bernardo do Campo,Campo Limo and M’Boi Mirim in peaceful demonstrations. Protest organisers said new mass demonstrations will be held in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on Thursday as well.

President Dilma Rousseff hailed the protests for raising questions and strengthening Brazil’s democracy. “Brazil today woke up stronger,’’ she said in a statement. Yet Rousseff offered no actions that her government might take to address complaints,even though her administration is a prime target of demonstrators’ frustrations.

On Tuesday night,tens of thousands of Brazilians again flooded the streets of the country’s biggest city to protest. In Sao Paulo,where upward of 50,000 people massed in front of the city’s main cathedral. While mostly peaceful,the demonstration followed the rhythm of protests that drew 240,000 people across Brazil the previous night,with small bands of radicals splitting off to fight with police and break into stores.

Tuesday night’s march in Sao Paulo started out peacefully but turned nasty outside City Hall when a small group lashed out at police and tried to invade the building.

Mass protests have been mushrooming across Brazil since demonstrations called last week by a group angry over the high cost of a woeful public transport system and a recent 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares in Sao Paulo,Rio and elsewhere.

The local governments in at least four cities have now agreed to reverse those hikes,and city and federal politicians have shown signs that the Sao Paulo fare could also be rolled back. It’s not clear that will calm the country,though,because the protests have released a seething litany of discontent from Brazilians over life’s struggles.

Yet,beyond complaints about the cost for bus and subway rides,protesters haven’t produced a laundry list of concrete demands. Demonstrators mainly are expressing deep anger and discontentment — not just with the ruling government,but with the entire governing system. A common chant at the rallies has been “No parties!’’