Thousands on Sunday took to the streets in cities across Brazil demanding that embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff — facing a weak economy and calls for her impeachment — be removed from office.
Rousseff is fighting for her political life as she stands accused of illegal budgeting maneuvers that she says were long-accepted practices by previous governments.
A one-time political prisoner during the 1964 to 1985 military regime, Rousseff derides the attempt to bring her down as a “coup.”
Photo: Reuters
“Time has shown that Dilma is unable to govern. She’s thrown the country down a well,” said Adriano de Queiroz, 36, a protester in the capital, Brasilia.
One small bit of good news for Rousseff was that turnout at the rallies, seen as a barometer of the national mood, was lower than expected.
The turnout hit a total of about 83,000 across 87 cities, the Globo G1 news Web site cited police as saying.
Organizers disputed that figure, saying that 407,000 had marched in protest.
Either way, the figures are sharply lower than the 2.4 million anti-Rousseff marchers that took to the streets on March 15, or the nearly 900,000 that marched in mid-August.
Just days earlier, pro-Rousseff and opposition lawmakers shoved and screamed at each other in Congress during a vote to form an impeachment commission.
However, protesters in the streets were much calmer on Sunday.
In Brasilia, thousands marched peacefully behind a giant inflatable Rousseff dressed up as Pinocchio.
And about 30,000 rallied in the nation’s wealthy industrial and financial hub Sao Paulo, G1 reported.
It was the fourth time this year that demonstrators across the sprawling nation of 204 million marched to demand the removal of the nation’s first female president.
Organizers blamed the weak turnout on calling the march with just 15 days notice.
“We were expecting fewer people [on Sunday] because in the other marches we had two to three months to organize ourselves,” Brazil Libre protest group national coordinator Kim Kataguiri said.
The turmoil is stirring strong passions in Brazil, where Rousseff’s leftist Workers’ Party has been in power since 2003 with the help of its ally PMDB.
The impeachment push in part reflects the nation’s anger over multiple crises, including the high-profile Petrobras scandal.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday last week suspended for one week the commission that is to recommend whether or not Congress should impeach the president, citing irregularities.
Of the 65 lawmakers elected in controversial circumstances to the panel, about 30 percent face criminal probes, a detailed count by specialist Web site Congresso em Focon said.
The architect of the impeachment drive, Brazilian Chamber of Deputies President Eduardo Cunha, has been charged with taking as much as US$40 million in bribes. He allegedly hid the money in secret Swiss accounts.
Analysts said that the entire impeachment crisis has in part been linked to Cunha’s battle to distract attention from his case and ensure his continued influence as speaker.
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