Rio kicks off Carnival parade with anti-establishment tone
RIO DE JANEIRO — There are some Brazilians who probably aren’t finding much to enjoy in Rio de Janeiro’s colorful Carnival parades — the mayor, the governor and the president.
An anti-establishment tone is echoing through this year’s celebrations in Brazil. And Sunday night’s parade at Rio’s Sambadrome featured entries that blasted the country’s political leadership at a moment of economic slump and political scandal.
President Michel Temer, Rio de Janeiro state Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao and Rio Mayor Marcelo Crivella were expected to skip the two-day bash at the Sambadrome. The samba parades used to be a magnet for politicians before a sprawling corruption investigation around state-run oil giant Petrobras began in 2014. Now officeholders fear being booed and even attacked by critics during the party.
Temer, whose popularity is in single digits, spent his last Carnival as president with a group of 40 people on a military-guarded beach south of Rio. Earlier a few hundred revelers in the capital of Brasilia organized a street party to make fun of his recent poor health and his unpopular pension overhaul.