World / Sao Paolo Guess What Didn't Stop Brazil's Protests? Sao Paolo and Rio relent on bus fare, but it's too little, too late By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff Posted Jun 20, 2013 7:25 AM CDT Copied Demonstrators shout slogans during an anti-government protest in Rio de Janeiro's sister city, Niteroi, Brazil, Wednesday evening, June 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro yesterday announced that they would revoke the 20 centavo hike in bus and subway fares that nominally started waves of protest around the country. Sao Paolo's governor said the move was "important … so the city can have the tranquility needed to debate issues calmly." But tranquility didn't seem to be on protesters' minds. Protest leaders said they'd now push to make public transit free all together, Reuters reports. Rio's mayor was under no illusions that the move would work. "We don't expect people to just quit protesting," he said, according to Bloomberg. "People are protesting for more than just bus fares, and that's their right. We're just listening to what they're saying, and this is a way to show it." Indeed, the protests now seem to be general rallies for all manner of social change—and a way of airing anger over the government's spending on soccer. (More Sao Paolo stories.) Report an error