Brazil's
Temer govt revokes army deployment decree amid outrage
Brazil's
government revoked Thursday a presidential decree deploying the
military in Brasilia to quell mass protests against unelected
President Michel Temer, high-level corruption and unpopular
neoliberal austerity measures.
The
government deployed soldiers Wednesday to crack down on the popular
uprising, claiming that riot police forces were unable to handle the
tens of thousands of demonstrators that flooded the streets of the
capital city to demand Temer's resignation and early elections to
choose a new president before the scheduled 2018 ballot. Organizers
estimated the protests boasted a turnout of 150,000 demonstrators
under the banner "Occupy Brasilia," a massive crowd in the
city of about 3 million.
The decision
to call in the military was strongly criticized by Temer's opponents,
as well as some of his allies, with opposition lawmakers walking out
of Congress Wednesday in protest of the move.
Approximately
50 people were injured amid clashes that erupted during the protests
as police and military employed pepper spray, tear gas, rubber
bullets and batons against the demonstrators. The decree also gave
soldiers policing rights and the power to make arrests.
According to
Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, advisors had warned Temer
before his announcement of the decree that the move could have a
negative impact on his reputation, already tarnished by widespread
government corruption and his forceful implementation of an austerity
agenda.
The latest
protests against the Temer administration, installed last year with
the removal of former President Dilma Rousseff in an impeachment
process widely condemned as a parliamentary coup, come on the heels
of the most severe scandal to hit the government yet after a wiretap
recording revealed Temer had endorsed bribes to keep quiet a powerful
witness in corruption investigations.
Temer faces
investigations for corruption and obstruction of justice after the
damning wiretap.
The
president has vowed that he will not step down over the scandal,
saying in an interview with Folha de Sao Paulo, "I won't
resign, oust me if you want."
The deeply
unpopular Temer administration has also sparked widespread outrage
with a series of controversial neoliberal policies — including a
reform that freezes public spending for two decades — that are
expected to hit poor and marginalized Brazilians hardest by rolling
back a number of social programs, including education, health,
pensions and labor laws.
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