Protests across Brazil continue as Thursday's 2014 World Cup opener between Brazil and Croatia looms closer. A number of protests -- from residents decrying Brazil's lack of low-income housing to upset union workers -- appear likely to continue through the month of World Cup tournament.
The unrest among Brazilians doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. While the world waits for the World Cup to begin, residents of Brazil are using the event as a platform to voice their discontent before an international audience.
One of the latest protests is from Brazilian's working-class poor, who have set up a camp less than three miles away from the Sao Paulo stadium. The camp, comprised of more than 3,000 families living in plastic tents, hopes to bring attention to Brazil's lack of subsidized housing.
CNN interviewed one resident living in the camp who said her rent in Sao Paulo doubled as the stadium was being built. While she doesn't want a handout, she -- along many in the camp -- wants the government to provide low-income housing.
"We paid 700 reais ($314) on rent, then food and clothes, it was too much," Jucilene de Oliveira told CNN. "... We don't want anything for free, but we need something we can pay. If we can pay 700 reais a month for rent, we could pay that in installments for a housing unit."
Brazil's subway workers' unions also protested this week in Sao Paulo. The protest, which continued for its fifth day on Monday, resulted in street fires and the police firing teargas. Half the metro stations were disrupted and traffic worsened because of the protests, according to the Guardian.
Many of the protests stem from anger over the government spending $11 billion on the World Cup --something many residents are unable to afford tickets to -- while both living and working conditions lag behind.
"The sense of being tricked is very strong in Brazil because, of course, people love football, and people love the World Cup as a cultural event," American professor Chris Gaffney told CBS News. "But the FIFA event is something new to Brazil, and that has generated a lot of disenchantment."
