Journalist hurt in Brazil World Cup protest dies

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) ― A Brazilian journalist injured while reporting on violent clashes with protesters was declared brain dead on Monday, as yet another demonstration paralyzed downtown Rio just four months ahead of the World Cup.

Television news cameraman Santiago Ilidio Andrade, 49, was left in a coma after being struck on the head by a flare during protests against bus fare increases last Thursday.

Rio de Janeiro’s public health office said Monday that neurosurgeons at Souza Aguiar municipal hospital had declared the married father-of-one brain dead.

“My husband is gone. They have destroyed a solid family,” Andrade’s heartbroken wife told the Globo television channel in an interview.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said she was “outraged and saddened” at news of Andrade’s death.

“It is unacceptable that democratic protests are taken over by those who have no respect for human lives,” Rousseff said on Twitter.

Rousseff said Brazil’s federal police force was ready to assist the investigation into Andrade’s death if required.

Both protesters implicated in the flare strike have been arrested.

The first, Fabio Raposo, 22, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter on Sunday after admitting he had picked up the flare and handed it to another protester who had thrown it.

“It was an act of negligence and irresponsibility,” Raposo’s lawyer Jonas Nunes Tadeu told CBN radio, but he insisted there was no intent to harm Andrade.

Although Raposo initially said he did not know the second protester, on Monday he gave the name to police, who quickly arrested him.

Monday’s announcement prompted an homage from some 30 fellow journalists, who gathered around the spot where Andrade was struck ― where a bloodstain marks the pavement ― in a silent circle, with their video and still cameras resting on the ground beside them.

Around 1,000 demonstrators also gathered Monday ― many from the Black Bloc anarchist group, masked and dressed in black ― for a protest that was so far peaceful, with police and helicopters watching over.

Last week’s clashes echoed the massive street protests which paralyzed Brazil during the FIFA Confederations Cup last June, which left at least five people dead.

Five others were injured in last week’s protests, which began as a peaceful demonstration but exploded into violence, with around 1,000 people battling riot police who fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.