In Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, more than 1,000 demonstrators halted traffic at rush hour on a heavily congested avenue; on Tuesday night, rock-throwing protesters here damaged churches and historic buildings. Similar protests have also unfolded in smaller cities, including Porto Alegre in the south, Goiânia in the country’s central region and Natal in the northeast.

The free-fare movement has held protests against bus-fare increases in different parts of Brazil in recent years. The latest demonstrations have crystallized around resistance to new fare increases, making it the latest in a sequence of campaigns of dissent over public transportation dating to the Vintém Revolt of 1879, when protesters in Rio de Janeiro challenged Brazil’s monarchy over fares for trolley cars. “The hike in bus fares were the spark for this to happen,” said Maurício Santoro, an adviser here to Amnesty International. “Public transportation in Brazil is expensive, unsafe and poorly managed, especially impacting poor commuters who have no choice but to rely on these systems.”