Brazilians stage huge rally, urge to remove President Rousseff

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians made a noisy and impassioned call on Sunday, March 13, for the removal of President Dilma Rousseff, whose leftist government is plagued by a sprawling corruption scandal and an economic meltdown that has humbled Latin America’s largest country, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Protesters poured into the streets in scores of cities waving banners and chanting slogans in what organizers and police estimated was among the largest antigovernment turnouts since Rousseff ascended to power in 2011.

In Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo, a record number of at least 450,000 people jammed the main thoroughfare, Avenida Paulista, according to the Datafolha polling agency. That is a bigger showing than was registered in April 1984, when city residents staged a pro-democracy rally near the end of the country’s 20-year military dictatorship.

Military police in São Paulo estimated the crowd at 1.4 million at its peak.

It is unclear whether Sunday’s powerful display will translate into political action in the coming days. A defiant Rousseff has vowed she won’t step down—and she may yet muster the congressional support needed to stave off impeachment, the Journal says.

Brazil recently lost its investment-grade credit rating, while its political leadership has been all but paralyzed with partisan bickering, unable to pass financial measures to jump-start an economy mired in its worst recession in decades.

In a note late Sunday, the presidency noted the peaceful nature of the demonstrations, saying that the freedom of expression is part of the democracy and must be respected.