Student Shot in Brazil: Spark for Anti-Dictatorship
A single bullet over the price of student meals brought 50,000 Brazilians into Rio's streets. Edson Luís de Lima Souto, just 18, was protesting for cheaper food at Calabouço restaurant when military police opened fire on March 28, 1968. His body lay in state at Rio's Legislative Assembly while students stood guard. The funeral procession stretched for miles. What started as a demand for affordable rice and beans became Brazil's first mass demonstration against the dictatorship — priests marched alongside communists, housewives beside union workers. The regime responded with AI-5 that December, the harshest crackdown yet. Turns out authoritarian governments fear hungry students more than armed revolutionaries.
March 28, 1968
58 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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