One million people across Brazil were out into the streets on Thursday demonstrating against the government despite the administration ceding some of their demands.
Initially, the protests were triggered by an increase in bus and subway fares, which the government reversed but now the demonstrators are protesting against the rampant corruption in the government.
According to Reuters, 300,000 people Thursday marched across the streets of Rio de Janeiro and hundreds of thousands more marched in other cities across the country.
Fearing that protesters would disrupt the ongoing Confederations Cup soccer matches in the Maracana Stadium in Rio, police cordoned off the area around the stadium on Thursday. The people are protesting the high cost of holding the World Cup scheduled for next year and the Olympics in 2016.
The movement has galvanized people across Brazil demanding better education and health schemes.
Protesters said that they were fed up with high taxes and poor government services chanting "I'd swap 10 stadiums for one decent hospital in this country" and "I'd give up the World Cup for better education in my country."
Alessandra Orofino, one of the organizers said that the protests were a result of lack of open opportunities to express grievances.
"Fundamentally, people are on the streets because they have very different demands, but they don't have a forum for expressing them and for being heard. And the bus fares were just one of these many many different things," said Orofino.
"I think that what government hasn't understood is that there will be no single demand that will calm people down, per se. I think fundamentally, if they don't open up, if they don't become more transparent and truly welcoming of participation, people will continue to demonstrate," said Orofino. "It might be for now. It might be in the future, but this isn't going to go away until we have a democracy that works."
