Brazil street protests demand Rousseff impeachment

Brazil

Tens of thousands of protesters across Brazil called for President Dilma Rousseff to step down Sunday, blaming her for the corruption and economic troubles besetting Latin America's biggest country.

The rolling demonstrations kicked off in the capital Brasilia, where organizers said 45,000 people attended, while police put the number at 25,000. Next came the 2016 Olympic host city Rio de Janeiro, where an Olympic bicycling test event had to be rerouted as large crowds took over the seafront avenue along Copacabana Beach.

Another protest was due to start in the country's financial capital Sao Paulo, with more gatherings staged in some 200 towns and cities, according to organizers. Crowds were boisterous but peaceful, many people wearing the national yellow football shirts, waving the Brazilian flag and chanting: "Dilma out!"

"We want things to change and if the people don't go in the street that's impossible," said retired engineer Elino Alves de Moraes, 77, in Brasilia, calling for Rousseff and her "gang" to be "put in jail."

Less than a year into her second term, Rousseff is on the ropes as the world's seventh-largest economy slides into recession. Austerity measures have replaced the economic go-go years fueled by Chinese demand for commodities, while an ever-expanding bribes and embezzlement probe centered on state oil company Petrobras is ripping through the country's elite.

In April, at least 600,000 people turned out against Rousseff and her leftist Workers' Party (PT) and more than a million in March. The extent and intensity of Sunday's protests will be key in determining support for calls from some in Congress for Rousseff to be impeached.