Brazil Leader to Protesters: Let's Talk

Brazil's president broke what the AP calls her "much-criticized silence" in the face of ever-growing demonstrations in a prime-time address last night, but it's unclear whether it will be enough to calm things down. Dilma Rousseff promised to meet with protesters and lawmakers to address the nation's transportation system and other grievances, but she also said the government would not tolerate the violence emerging in protests, reports Reuters.

"We cannot live with this violence that shames Brazil," says Rousseff —herself a former Marxist rebel who protested against the nation's military rule of the 1960s. (In fact, the AP says she was imprisoned for three years and tortured by the junta.) "All institutions and public security forces should prevent, within the limits of the law, every form of violence and vandalism." As for the promises of change, the New York Times adds a note of skepticism:

• Rousseff "has floated her ambitious proposal before—to use oil revenues to improve the beleaguered public schools—only to run up against stiff resistance from state governors who rely on the money to meet their budgets, leaving her ability to enact it in doubt."

(More Brazil stories.)