The protests in Brazil continued on Thursday, hours before the opening ceremony of the 2014 World Cup. Brazilian police fired teargas at a small group of protestors trying to make their way toward the Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo, CNN reports.
The start of the 2014 World Cup hasn't quelled public demonstrations in Brazil. Police used teargas to hold back a small group of protestors on Thursday, according to CNN's Shasta Darlington. The altercation occurred seven miles from the Arena Corinthians and resulted in one arrest.
One of the teargas canisters hit Darlington and her producer, Barbara Arvanitidis; Darlington sustained a minor cut on her arm, and Arvanitidis was struck on the wrist.
The protests stem from anger over the government spending more than $11 billion on the World Cup while many Brazilian citizens continue to struggle with both poor working and living conditions.
More than 3,000 families of Brazil's working-class poor erected plastic tents and formed a camp less than three miles away from the Sao Paulo stadium. The residents living in the camp hope to draw attention to Brazil's lack of low-income housing, according to CNN.
Jucilene de Oliveira, a resident of the camp, told CNN her rent doubled in Sao Paulo as the country prepared for the World Cup.
"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."
Some workers' unions have also protested in the week leading up to the World Cup. Brazil's subways workers' unions took to the streets of Sao Paulo on Monday for the fifth day, which resulted in street fires, traffic jams and the police firing teargas.
"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."
