Protests Across Brazil Raise Pressure on President Dilma Rousseff CHEGA DE SER BURRO BRASIL
RIO DE JANEIRO — Tens of thousands of protesters returned to the streets of cities across Brazil on Sunday to express their ire against President Dilma Rousseff, reflecting a low ebb for her as she grapples with a colossal bribery scandal and a declining economy.
Still,
the protests in some cities seemed to lack some of the urgency of huge
demonstrations this year calling for the ouster of Ms. Rousseff, a
leftist who won re-election just 10 months ago, suggesting tension may
be easing somewhat on the president as congressional and business
leaders try to prevent a political crisis from intensifying.
The
protest in Rio de Janeiro had something of a Carnivalesque feel to it;
some demonstrators wore bathing suits as they marched through the
Copacabana district as trucks blared samba. But vitriol also marked the
event, with some urging the president to kill herself or calling on the
military to take power.
“A
military intervention may be illegal, but the people have to mobilize
to make it legal,” said Rosangela Almeida, 53, an accountant, arguing
that action must be taken to prevent Brazil from suffering the economic
disarray of neighboring Venezuela. Decades of dictatorship in Brazil
left a legacy of hyperinflation and human rights abuses, and political
analysts consider the chances of the armed forces returning to power
through a coup to be negligible. Still, rising polarization is feeding
fears that political infighting could prolong an economic slump.
Eying
the potential for upheaval if Ms. Rousseff is forced to step down,
business leaders have been pressuring political leaders to prevent the
crisis from worsening. In a notable move, the newspaper O Globo said in
an editorial that maneuvering against Ms. Rousseff in Congress had gone
too far.
The
head of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, expressed opposition last week to
impeaching Ms. Rousseff, while seeking to advance measures to restore
confidence in the economy. The possibility that Ms. Rousseff could draw
greater support in the Senate bolstered hopes that she could fend off
momentum for her impeachment in the lower house.
Still,
some observers warn that the political crisis remains in flux.
Prosecutors are expected to make more revelations in the bribery scandal
involving Petrobras, the government-controlled oil company. The economy
is expected to shrink both this year and next. And Ms. Rousseff’s
approval ratings remain mired in the single digits.
“Conciliation
is advancing, but it’s still based on a precarious equilibrium,” said
Bernardo Mello Franco, a columnist for the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.
Ms.
Rousseff insists she will not resign, even as her opponents hold her
responsible for the scandal at Petrobras because the bribery scheme
flourished while she was chairwoman of the company’s board, before her
election in 2010. She also faces legal challenges over whether her
campaign received illicit contributions and if her government improperly
used money from state banks to cover budget shortfalls.
“There
is a process of intolerance in Brazil unseen except in moments of the
past when democracy was ruptured,” Ms. Rousseff said last week in a
televised interview. “The culture of the coup still exists, but I don’t
think the conditions are there for it to occur.”
Many
protesters throughout Brazil on Sunday said they were prepared to deal
with the consequences of ousting her. “Impeachment would be momentarily
destabilizing, but it’s allowed in the Constitution, and it needs to
happen,” said Pedro Lopes Siqueira, 35, a public servant in Rio de
Janeiro’s judiciary.
Others,
however, are not so sanguine. Cássia Regina Dias, 42, who earns a
living making sweets, said she wanted Ms. Rousseff removed from power,
but expressed dismay about the jockeying for power as the president’s
influence declines. “No party will be the savior after such damage,” Ms
Comentários