SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Tens of thousands of people rallied Saturday for an Independence Day protest against poverty, injustice and a U.S.-proposed hemispheric trade pact.
As Brazil celebrated 180 years of independence from Portugal, nearly 100,000 protesters massed for the "Cry of the Excluded," organized by labor unions and the Catholic Church in Aparecida, 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of Sao Paulo, local police said.
Gathered outside the shrine of Our Revealed Lady, Brazil's patron saint, the crowd protested against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would lower trade barriers from Alaska to Argentina by 2005.
Some demonstrators held up banners in Portuguese saying "sovereignty is not negotiable".
The Brazilian Bishops' Conference, the Church's ruling body here, is gathering signatures for a plebiscite on whether Brazil should join the FTAA. The plebiscite was the idea of the bishops' conference and the Landless Rural Workers Movement, which say the pact would cause more unemployment and social misery in Brazil.
The results of the plebiscite are to be released later this month.
The "cry of the excluded" has been held annually on Independence Day for eight years to call attention to poverty and inequality in Latin America's biggest country.
In Brasilia, the capital, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso watched a military parade that was shorter than previous years and without the traditional flyover by Air Force fighter planes because of budget cuts. The government slashed nearly dlrs 1 billion (3 billion reals) from the military budget this year.
The military also held parades in Sao Paulo, Salvador and other major cities. But in Rio de Janeiro, the parade was canceled because of strong winds and heavy rain.
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