07:00
Widespread Anger against Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff is mounting as hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the
streets across the country, demanding her resignation. A massive corruption
scandal has shaken the government.
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| Demonstrators in São Paulo take part in a protest to demand the resignation of Dilma Rousseff. Photograph: Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images |
Already struggling with an impeachment
challenge, the worst recession in a century and the biggest corruption scandal in Brazil’s history, the Workers party
leader was given another reason to doubt she will complete her four-year term.
The demonstrations on Sunday –
which reached all 26 states and the federal district – were expected to be
bigger than similar rallies last year. The largest took place in São Paulo,
where the polling company Datafolha estimated the crowd at 450,000, more than
double the number it registered last year.
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| An inflatable doll known as ‘Pixuleco’, portraying Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is seen inside a cage during a protest in Brasilia. Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters |
Some 100,000 people gathered in Brasilia and over 200,000 in Rio
de Janerio on Sunday, according to rally organizers and media. Anti-government
protesters took to the streets in some 400 cities across Brazil.
"I came
(to the rally) because I am tired to seeing so much corruption, and because I
want to end the disorder that has taken over this country," Rosilene
Feitosa, a 61-year-old woman, told the AFP news agency.
The
president appealed to the protesters to remain calm and criticized the
opposition graffiti attack against her Worker's Party's student union offices
in Sao Paulo.
Rousseff is
the latest leftist leader in Latin America to face mass protests as a
decade-long economic boom in the continent comes to an abrupt end.
