Some socialist anti-Obama protests in Rio de Janeiro. Police scattered the crowd with rubber bullets on Friday. More protests are scheduled by political groups during Obama's two day trip to Brazil.
“They came after us with clubs and tear gas and attacked,” according to protestor Thiago Hastenheiter. “They chased us through the streets and started firing rounds of rubber bullets.”
Police major Fabio Alessandro of the 13th Batallion of Rio’s military police said that the protestors, all left leaning social movements associated with the Socialist Workers Party, PSTU, did not have a permit to protest near the consulate along Avenida Rio Branco and had refused to disperse from the area. They wore the ubiquitous Che Guevera T shirt and carried American flags that said Go Home Obama. Most of the protests had been peaceful until two home-made molotov cocktails were let loose in the direction of the Consulate. A guard at the Consulate was partially burned and was sent to the emergency room at Souza Aguiar Hospital.
Fourteen protestors have been arrested.
See video here by a protestor at the moment the rubber bullets were fired..
Obama will arrive in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday and give a speech to invited guests in downtown Rio. Originally, the speech was to take place at the Cinelândia square in the city, but was changed on Friday. The Embassy did not give a reason for the change. Rumors on the street and in the local press were that security officials were worried of a possible terrorist attack against Obama in open air in light of the UN Security Council resolution against Libya on Thursday. Obama endorsed military action against Libya following over a week of violence against anti-government rebels there. Moammar Gadhafi agreed to a cease fire.
What is most ironicabout the Brazil protests is that the PSTU is a hard core socialist party in Brazil. While anti-Obama protests in the US consider Obama a socialist, the socialists in Brazil consider him a yankee capitalist, the bane of the Latin American left.
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