Rage in Brazil

Demonstrators march in downtown Rio de Janeiro on June 17, 2013. (Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty)

Though social media and the local press reported scattered clashes, there was little of the mayhem and violence of recent days when similar protests turned two of Latin America's megacities into battlefields.

The days of rage have caught observers of this emerging Latin American powerhouse by surprise and rattled a government already suffering from decaying popularity.

Bringing to mind the ongoing protests in Turkey, what began last week as an improvised demonstration against a small hike in bus and subway fares flared into an outright revolt, sweeping a dozen Brazilian cities and throwing a harsh light on the shortcomings of a nation anxious to claim the stage in world affairs.

Triggering the revolt was an innocuous-seeming fare increase of about nine cents for public transportation in São Paulo. But the outrage touched a nerve in this sprawling metropolis of 18 million, where 7 million people depend on a precarious network of buses and subways, and where commuting to and from work can be a four-hour ordeal. "The cars of 20 percent of the population occupy 80 percent of the streets," read one protest banner yesterday.