Hopes of an early end to the protests that have swept Brazil in the past week appear to have been dashed as more than a quarter of a million anti-government demonstrators take to the streets.
Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo showed footage from Belo Horizonte, where police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.
Police estimated that about 60,000 demonstrators gathered in a central square of the city, which was hosting the Confederations Cup match between Japan and Mexico.
Salvador also saw protests turn violent. The northeastern city hosted the match between Brazil’s national football team against Italy.
Although the home team won 4-2, some 5,000 protesters gathered close to the stadium, shouting demands for better schools and transportation and denouncing heavy spending on next year’s World Cup.
They blocked a main road and clashed with riot police who moved in to clear the street.
Protesters said police used rubber bullets and even tossed tear gas canisters from a helicopter hovering overhead.
Anger over political corruption emerged as the unifying issue for the demonstrators, who vowed to stay in the streets until concrete steps are taken to reform the political system.
In total, more than 250,000 anti-government demonstrators took to streets in over 100 Brazilian cities on Saturday, according to a police count published on the website of the Globo TV network, Brazil’s largest.
The protests continued despite a prime-time speech the night before from Rousseff, who tried to appease demonstrators by reiterating that peaceful protests were a welcome, democratic action and emphasising that she would not condone corruption in her government.
The wave of protests began over a week ago as opposition to transportation fare hikes, then became a laundry list of causes including anger at high taxes, poor services and high World Cup spending, before coalescing around the issue of rampant government corruption.
They have become the largest public demonstrations Latin America’s biggest nation has seen in two decades.