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World Cup 2014 protest: 12,000 demonstrators take to the streets of Sao PauloThousands of protestors march on São Paulo's Arena Corinthians to demonstrate against the spending of public money on World ...
In addition, as of Thursday, the union of metro workers in San Paulo announced it was going on strike to protest low wages. A famously congested city to begin with, a worker's strike during the World Cup--as international tourists pour in--would wreak havoc.
And last week in the capital city of Brasilia, indigenous protesters clashed with riot police on horseback as they voiced their anger at the dissonance between money spent on the games and the lack of resources available to the nation's consistently neglected and disregarded populations.
"Who is the Cup for? Not us!" the demonstrators shouted. "I don't want the Cup, I want money for health and education."
A year ago, when Brazil hosted the regional Confederations Cup tournament, more than a million people took to the streets for similar reasons in a series of marches and protests that brought the normal workings of several cities to a halt.
In anticipation of continued protest and public discontent , Brazil's President Dilma Roussef vowed on Tuesday to make "security" a top priority. According to Agence France-Presse, the nation's "military police units have been kitted out with hi-tech uniforms making their members look like something out of Robocop," a science fiction movie about a part-human, part-machine police officer. AFP addes
Around 157,000 troops and police will be deployed across the 12 host venues for the Cup, running from June 12-July 13.
Some 20,000 private security agents will also be on hand in the stadiums -- some 1,800 per venue in an $860 million operation.
In addition, 120 police officers from 40 countries will collaborate with the Brazilian authorities as they jointly collate and assess intelligence.
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