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BRAZILIANS responded in their hundreds of thousands on Sunday to calls from right-wing politicians to take to the streets in a protest against corruption.
The biggest demonstration was in Sao Paulo, where more than 200,000 people gathered on a main avenue, while large gatherings also took place in capital Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and the southern city of Porto Alegre.
Some marchers who paraded along the Copacabana beach in Rio openly called for a military coup.
Popular discontent is high since the economy is slowing down and dozens of top political figures are being investigated over kickbacks at state-run oil company Petrobras which prosecutors call Brazil’s largest-ever corruption scheme.
While rightwingers have tried to tar President Dilma Rousseff with the corruption brush, her government has undertaken to introduce anti-corruption measures in congress that she pledged during her re-election campaign in October.
Ms Rousseff, a former chairwoman of the Petrobras board, has not been implicated in the scandal and is not being investigated, but top administration officials, including two former chiefs of staff, are caught up in the inquiry.
Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo defended the government, emphasising Ms Rousseff’s record as a left-wing guerilla fighter who stood up to Brazil’s US-backed 1964-85 military dictatorship.
The president herself has stressed her support for peaceful demonstrations.
Mr Cardozo said that the rallies “confirm that Brazil is a democratic state that allows for divergences, the existence of opposing opinions and that we’re far from any coup option.”
by Our Foreign Desk
