Brazil sends national security force to quell protests
19 June 2013 Last updated at 08:41 GMT
Brazil's
government says it will deploy a national security force to five major
cities after a wave of protests which has seen almost a quarter of a
million people demand better public services.
Members of the national force will be sent to Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Ceara and the capital, Brasilia. All of the cities are hosting games in Fifa's Confederations Cup.
The announcement comes after riot police and protesters clashed in fresh protests on Tuesday in Sao Paulo.
Brazil's ministry of justice said that Recife was the only Confederations Cup host city not to request the support of the National Public Security Force (FNSP).
Brazil's National Public Security Force
- Created in 2004 as a joint co-operation of various Brazilian public safety forces
- Led by the police commissioner of Brazil's Federal Police
- Deployed in cases of "social unrest and exceptional situations in Brazilian states when public order is challenged"
A source in the ministry said it would be up to local governments to decide how long the FNSP would stay.
Shops and banks in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, were
vandalised on Tuesday by groups of masked activists, who fought other
demonstrators trying to stop the violence.The protest was the latest in a wave of demonstrations engulfing at least a dozen cities.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said she was proud that so many people were fighting for a better country.
The protests were sparked by anger at a rise in public transport fare prices in Sao Paulo on 2 June but have since mushroomed into much broader discontent with high levels of corruption, the poor state of the health and education services and the high cost of living.
They are the largest since 1992, when people took to the streets to demand the impeachment of then-President Fernando Collor de Mello.