Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Brazil on Sunday to support former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and protest the government of new Brazilian President Michel Temer, who took power when Rousseff was removed from office on Wednesday last week following her impeachment by the Brazilian Senate.
Demonstration organizers — who have rejected Temer’s ascendancy as a “coup” — said about 100,000 protestors filled the major artery Paulista Avenue, many holding banners that read “Out with Temer,” and “Direct elections now.”
The Brazilian Senate on Wednesday last week voted to convict Rousseff on charges of having illegally manipulated government accounts, stripping her of her office and replacing her with Temer, her bitter enemy and former vice president.
Photo: AP
The protest ended with clashes between demonstrators and police, who fired gas bombs, according to the news Web site G1.
Temer, who after being sworn in promptly traveled to China for the G20 summit, said the protests were done by “small groups and predators.”
“These are small groups ... I do not have it numerically, but they are 40, 50, 100 people. It is nothing more than that. Out of 204 million Brazilians, I do not think it means much,” media outlets quoted Temer as saying.
The opposition dismissed the president’s figures: “The coup president of Brazil said that our demonstration would have 40 people. Here are those 40 people — we are already almost 100,000 on Paulista Avenue,” said Guilherme Boulos, a member of one of the opposition groups that organized the protest.
The demonstration was held in the late afternoon so as not to interfere with the passing of the torch from the Paralympic Games, an event in Rio de Janeiro due to start within three days — where another 2,000 people had demonstrated.
Rousseff was Brazil’s first female president.
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