Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff stands next to Brazil’s Vice President Michel Temer during an announcement of the construction of the first 50 port terminals for private use (TUP), at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia yesterday.
AFP/Brasilia
Lorries blocked highways across Brazil for a second straight day yesterday as drivers press demands for fuel subsidies, better working conditions, and an end to road tolls, local media reported.
The southeastern state of Minas Gerais was the worst hit with some 14 highways blocked off, causing bottlenecks on motorways leading to the business hub metropolises of Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte, Brazil’s third-biggest city.
Protesters set fire to a bus and vandalised three others on a highway linking Belo Horizonte with the capital Brasilia, bringing traffic to a halt for some six hours, O Estado de Sao Paulo daily reported.
Following a decision by the authorities to impose fines on those joining the blockade, driver union MUBC told truckers to move off early yesterday - but at a snail’s pace.
The protesters had blocked off the main access road to Latin America’s biggest container port at Santos in the southeast for 24 hours before it re-opened late Tuesday. The protests come amid the worst social unrest to hit Brazil in more than 20 years as millions rally against poor public services and rampant corruption.
The unrest began three weeks ago as Brazil prepared to host the Confederations Cup, dress rehearsal for next year’s World Cup. Many citizens say the $15bn spent on hosting the sports jamborees is not money well spent and complain the cash should have been invested in infrastructure and social projects.
President Dilma Rousseff responded to the unrest by Tuesday submitting a proposal to Congress to hold a referendum on political reform. And yesterday, the Brazilian senate approved an amended bill to divert profits from the country’s lucrative oil sector toward investment in education and health.
The move would see 75% of oil sector profits assigned to education and the remainder to health, the official senate bulletin revealed.
An original government proposal to pour all oil-related profits into education had lain dormant, but the protests of recent weeks have galvanised politicians into action 16 months ahead of presidential elections.
The lower house of Congress approved the proposal last week but will have to do so again after the senate on Tuesday made amendments, including assigning some cash to a creaking public health sector. Another amendment provides for 50% of eventual receipts from deep water pre-salt deposits under exploration to go directly to education, with the remainder split between both education and health.