The recent protests against this month’s FIFA World Cup have spread to Twitter with the hashtag “I am not going to Brazil because…” Brazil’s president has slammed the protest as a campaign against FIFA and her party.
“Today, there is a systematic campaign against the World Cup – or rather, it is not against the World Cup but rather a systematic campaign against us,” President Dilma Rousseff said in the southern city of Porto Alegre, AFP reported.
Rousseff said those behind the mass demonstrations are only exploiting the moment to undermine her centrist Workers Party (PT) ahead of the general elections scheduled for October 5. She did not say who is behind the campaign.
Even in the days when the likes of Pele were leading Brazil to glory, “we did not confuse the World Cup with politics,” she said.
Rousseff said that criticism toward Brazilian authorities’ spending on the World Cup was “disinformation,” saying the modernized airports and transport infrastructure will benefit Brazil in future.
#NoVoyABrasilPorque
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On Thursday, the hashtag #NoVoyABrasilPorque (“I am not going to Brazil because…”) appeared on Twitter to protest the World Cup. First introduced in Colombia, it quickly went viral worldwide.
“Poverty that exists in this country demonstrates that it is not worth supporting the World Cup,” tweeted user @santiagojuva in a typical comment.
The hashtag is mostly used by people or human rights organizations in Latin America and Spain who wanted to protest treatment of the poor during preparations for the competition.